Just passing this along - some of you may want to attend to voice your opinion. - Russ

From: DCISOC <info@dcisoc.org> Subject: DCISOC: SECSAC meeting on Verisign's Site Finder Service This meeting, on one of the hottest Internet topics, will be held in downtown D.C. next Tuesday. You're invited.

Special Meeting of ICANN's Security and Stability Advisory Committee Regarding VeriSign's Deployment of Wildcard

Marina del Rey, CA - 30 September 2003 - ICANN's Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SECSAC) announced today that it will hold a special meeting on 7 October 2003 to gather input regarding VeriSign's recent change to the operation of the registry for the .com and .net Top Level Domains.

SECSAC is an ICANN advisory committee comprised of Internet pioneers and technical experts including operators of Internet root servers, registrars, and TLD registries.

On 15 September 2003, VeriSign introduced a "wildcard" into the .com and .net zones. The VeriSign wildcard redirects traffic that would otherwise have resulted in a "no domain" response to a VeriSign-operated website with search results and links to paid advertisements.

Since the introduction of the wildcard, the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), SECSAC and other groups have issued separate statements expressing concerns over this change to the operation of the Internet's core infrastructure and its impact on the stability of the Internet.

Following this special meeting, SECSAC will issue a report intended to be of use to ICANN, to the technical community, and to the community at large who seek to understand the issues at hand and how the critical parts of the Internet interact with each other.

The meeting will be held on Tuesday, 7 October 2003, from 10 AM to 4 PM at:

The Center for Strategic and International Studies <www.csis.org> 1800 K Street NW Washington, DC 20006

The meeting is free and open to the public. Please pre-register at <http://register.icann.org>. ICANN also plans to webcast the meeting live. Further details including an agenda, background materials and webcast arrangements are available at <http://secsac.icann.org>.

In preparation for the meeting, ICANN and its SECSAC have issued a public request for comments and reports to <secsac-comment@icann.org> relating to the effects of the .com and .net wildcards.

Additional information regarding SECSAC is available at <http://www.icann.org/committees/security/>. An information page on the .com and .net wildcards has been posted at <http://www.icann.org/general/wildcard-history.htm>.

_________________________________________________________________ Russ Haynal - Internet Instructor, Speaker and Paradigm Shaker "Helping organizations gain the most benefit from the Internet" russ@navigators.com http://navigators.com 703-729-1757