NCC Group brings .trust to the internet
Information assurance firm NCC Group has announced its plans for .trust, a unique generic top-level domain that aims to provide a safer and more trustworthy internet for both businesses and consumers.
A .trust domain is designed to help protect an organisation’s brand, reputation and sensitive customer information by enforcing the highest level of security and reliability. For consumers, it aims to provide a clear signal that a site is what it claims to be and is a safe place to do business, interact and share information.
Responding to the demands of the world’s online community, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is currently operating a program to add thousands more gTLDs to the web over the next few years. The majority of these new domains will be used to categorise companies and individuals into physical locations, industry segments or brands. In contrast, .trust has been created as a gated community to make the internet more secure.
Rob Cotton, CEO at the Manchester-based NCC Group, said: “The internet is a lawless world – ungovernable, unmanageable and insecure. Consumer confidence has gone, and businesses are at a loss at how to combat the risks.
“The new rollout of gTLDs is further changing the shape of the internet. Cybersquatting and phishing were big issues with just 22 gTLDs, but with more than 1,400 set to be introduced these problems are set to get exponentially worse. The cost for a business to protect its online presence and purchase all possible domain combinations will also be extortionate.
“The benefits to businesses of having a .trust gTLD are immediately obvious. It will act as a key differentiator, bringing back consumer confidence by protecting customers as they transact and interact online. The internet is set to change forever, and we are committed to changing it for the good, making it a safer place and introducing trust.”
Applicants for a .trust domain will have to verify their identity, ensure their organisation is secure by complying with a strict and specific code of security policies, and assure their infrastructure remains safe by undergoing regular compliance scanning.
The policies have been developed by a coalition of industry and NCC Group experts, and adhering to them will help provide comprehensive protection from vulnerabilities that threaten to compromise integrity, availability and privacy.
Rob continued: “End users will come to recognise .trust as an island of trusted brands in a new, confusing namespace.”
Pioneer businesses in San Francisco have been involved in the process of developing the security protocols for .trust for several months, and some of these will be among the first to take up the .trust domain when it is available for registration towards the end of Q3.