Blocks access to .info — Australian parliament

Fresh TLD backers take note.

Australian parliamentarians can’t access .info domain names, as stated by a story on ITNews.com.au today.

A block was placed late last year on the advice of the Defence Signals Directorate since the domain “is generally considered to be a source of more than its fair share of attacks and malicious software”, as stated by the department’s acting secretary.

This doesn’t affect many people, and it may be a stupid way to run internet security.

But .info has frequently been called out in the past for having a lot of “bad” sites. The reason? Most likely cut rate first year pricing. For a while it was the cheapest way for spammers, sploggers, etc. to get get a domain name.

There’s a message for firms behind fresh top level domains: manage your namespace’s credibility.

China’s .cn faced a similar issue since it registered domains for only 14 cents a year at one point. In a world where scammers need to register hundreds or thousands of disposable domains, they flock to the cheap ones.

If your model is to offer cut rate pricing, and you have an open TLD, you will likely attract some of the less savory domain registrants. That can be bad for your entire namespace.

(Hat tip: @GeorgeKirikos)