In 2015, Afnic launched .FR LOCK, a registry lock service to counter the risks of “hijacking” – a cyber-attack in which a hacker manages to take control of a domain name, enabling them to input data of their choosing.
This new issue paper provides an occasion to make an initial assessment of the service 2 years after its go live. Through concrete examples of recent cyber-attacks linked to domain name hijacking, it demonstrates the importance of locking the most sensitive domain names.
Domain name hijacking rarely makes front-page news, unlike distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks, but the risks are equally nigh and the consequences equally high.
Registry lock-type solutions have proven to be effective in reducing these risks. However, their adoption by domain name holders requires time and teaching, as evidenced by the registrar Nameshield, who have agreed to share their experience with us.
Find out more about the identified levers and possible solutions in this issue paper:
Download Afnic’s issue paper on .Fr Lock
About Afnic
Afnic is the acronym for Association Française pour le Nommage Internet en Coopération, the French Network Information Centre. The registry has been appointed by the French government to manage domain names under the .fr Top Level Domain. Afnic also manages the .re (Reunion Island), .pm (Saint-Pierre and Miquelon), .tf (French Southern and Antarctic Territories), .wf (Wallis and Futuna) and .yt (Mayotte) French Overseas TLDs.
In addition to managing French TLDs, Afnic’s role is part of a wider public interest mission, which is to contribute on a daily basis, thanks to the efforts of its teams and its members, to a secure and stable internet, open to innovation and in which the French internet community plays a leading role. As part of that mission, Afnic, a non-profit organization, has committed to devoting 11% of its Revenues from managing .fr Top Level Domain to actions of general interest, in particular by transferring €1.3 million each year to the Afnic Foundation for Digital Solidarity.
Afnic is also the back-end registry for the companies as well as local and regional authorities that have chosen to have their own TLD, such as .paris, .bzh, .alsace, .corsica, .mma, .ovh, .leclerc and .sncf.
Established in 1997 and based in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Afnic currently has nearly 90 employees.
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