Our impact on internet security and stability

Raising young people’s data awareness

Whether they know it or not, everyone who uses the internet leaves a data trail. However, many people, including younger people, don’t realise the implications of those trails for themselves or the community. The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision and interactive media developer Studio Kloek have created an educational workshop called Baas in Eigen Bubbel ('Be Boss of Your Bubble') and an accompanying serious game. Supported by SIDN Fund, the initiative aims to raise young people's awareness of data trails.

• Read more: Educational workshop and serious game make young people more data-savvy

Data breach prevention for >6 million domain names

Suppose that you’ve got a .nl domain name that you don’t need any more, so you cancel the registration. After 40 days in quarantine, the name’s released for re-registration by anyone. However, there may be people out there who are still sending mail to e-mail addresses at your old domain. If someone else picks up your unwanted domain name and creates addresses like your old ones, or sets up a catch-all, they can take delivery of mail that’s meant for you. Including potentially sensitive mail. That’s what happened to the Dutch police and to certain care providers, resulting in serious data breaches. A new tool by SIDN Labs therefore alerts former registrants if their old domains continue to attract traffic while in quarantine. They can then remedy the situation before any data is leaked.

• Read more: Data breach prevention for all 6.2 million .nl domain names

Development of a 'responsible internet'

Modern societies are increasingly dependent on internet services. Yet people and organisations have less and less insight into or control over the way their data is handled by the underlying systems, or over who generates and manages data about them. To help solve the problem of declining 'digital autonomy', SIDN Labs has linked up with colleagues at the University of Twente, the University of Amsterdam, Delft University of Technology, Wolfson College, Oxford University, NLnet Labs and Eindhoven University of Technology to develop the concept of a 'responsible internet'. The new concept involves a fundamental change to the internet infrastructure, providing users with new levels of insight into and control over their internet communications, especially in relation to essential services, such as smart energy grids. Although the concept presents numerous challenges and will require broad, multidisciplinary dialogue amongst stakeholders such as researchers, citizens, system operators and policy-makers, we believe that a new approach is vital for future-proofing the internet.

• Read more: A 'responsible internet': increasing trust in the foundation of digital societies

Promotion of internet standards

We believe that the adoption of secure, modern internet standards such as IPv6, DNSSEC, DMARC, DANE and StartTLS is very important. Their use improves the security and stability of the internet and e-mail. As well as contributing to the development of new standards through active involvement in the various IETF working groups, we promote the adoption of existing standards. For example, we offer .nl registrars financial incentives for configuring the domain names in their portfolios to support the standards. We also smooth the way for adoption by sharing knowledge through webinars, articles on our website and online and offline SIDN Academy courses.

• Read more: Modern and secure internet standards

Fake webshops taken off line much sooner

We have a proactive policy on fighting fake webshops: scam sites that trick consumers into placing orders, but supply shoddy counterfeit goods or nothing at all. The scams are a real problem for many internet users, so we work hard to stop them. For example, SIDN Labs has developed software that looks at new registrations and aims to predict whether each domain name is going to be used for a fake webshop. The team has also created a Fake Detector that identifies suspicious domain names. FaDe decides whether a domain is suspect by looking at ten attributes, including the registrar and the network hosting the associated website. If a domain is confirmed as a scam, our abuse team takes immediate action to get it shut down. And the policy is getting results: a large number of fake webshops have been taken off line.

Read more:

• SIDN and Currence team up to fight fake webshops

• Fake webshops taken off line much sooner

• SIDN Labs' Fake Detector