ICANN stands for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Its purpose is to coordinate the Domain Name System (DNS), Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, space allocation, protocol identifier assignment, generic (gTLD) and country code (ccTLD) Top-Level Domain name system, and root server system functions. Basically ICANN is the highest authority overseeing the world's Internet systems. As the highest authority, ICANN requires that every business desiring to become a registrar with direct access to ICANN-designated TLDs must first become accredited. And yesterday, Dynadot was proud to celebrate 10 years of ICANN accreditation.

Now you may have noticed that we did a big 10-year anniversary celebration & sale back in September. Although Dynadot was first incorporated in September of 2002, we were just getting started as a company and our ICANN accreditation was a big part of that. In fact, we received our ICANN accreditation long before we took our first official domain registration, which wasn't until June of 2003.

You may be wondering what this means for you as a Dynadot customer. Getting accredited by ICANN requires us as a registrar to meet many qualifications including secure, authenticated access; robust and scalable operations; reliable and readily usable daily data backup; and procedures for information systems security to name a few. ICANN also checked on (and continues to check) our financial stability, requiring adequate working capital to be available for the operation of a registrar business. Finally, they require us as a registrar to agree to their governing policies before they decide to approve the accreditation.

Getting accredited and staying accredited is an ongoing process. ICANN still regularly checks all their accredited registrars to make sure we are all operating within their guidelines. Unfortunately, there are many unaccredited, and thus unregulated, companies passing themselves off as registrars. But here at Dynadot, we are proud to continue to be an ICANN accredited registrar and to offer great services and security to all of our customers.

Post by Robyn Norgan