Russia prepares for new domain registration rules
2010-03-24
Russian security officials have confirmed that anyone looking to register a domain in the country will soon require identification.
The Coordination Center for the top .ru domain has announced that it will be tightening its procedures in a bid to curb the rise of malware-laden sites in the country.
At present, the domain name system does little to impinge on hackers' operations as they are not required to provide any details about themselves to internet service providers.
As a result, a game of cat-and-mouse ensues with security experts, as cybercriminals can simply start up new servers when their malicious projects are identified and shut down.
However, from April 1st, any individual interested in registering a Russian domain must provide a copy of their passport, while businesses will be asked to supply legal registration papers.
Olga Ermakova, information projects manager at the Coordination Center, explained that the move is designed to bring Russia up to speed with international best practices.
"We don't need negative content and such content is often [created] by unknown users," she told the IDG News Service.
The announcement follows the news that China has adopted a similar approach to .cn domain registrations in order to stop hackers using them for spam or command-and-control servers that send instructions to computers infected with malware.
However, not everyone in the IT security sector is convinced about the impact of the new regulations.
Luis Corrons, technical director at Panda Security Labs, described the strategy as a "small step in the right direction" but explained that more needs to be done to tackle the wider problems within cybercrime.
He said: "There is a long way to go. How this translates in the real world [is the question] - what is going to happen now? Of course, maybe, they won't do it again and Russia will go to Ukraine or another country. It's good, but we are not going to see a big difference.
"Many things need to be done with the government and the laws. A botnet is a concept for control of some kind of equipment - today they are talking about computers and tomorrow it will be the fridge."
Robert Birkner, chief strategy officer at domain name service company Hexonet, admitted that the .ru domain has been heavily utilised by hackers in recent months.
But he also echoed Mr Corrons' sentiments that criminals will find somewhere else to go, with Vietnam's .vn and Indonesia's .id domains also being targeted at present.
Earlier this week, Paul Hoare, senior manager and head of e-crime operations at the Serious Organised Crime Agency in the UK, said it is "ridiculously easy" to provide false details when registering a domain.
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