.name Registrar Web Site Hacked

The web site for Global Name Registry, which operates the .name registry database, was back online this morning after it was hacked Saturday. "We did an update to Apache and PHP last week and someone managed to exploit a hole in one of these and replace the index file on the webserver," Global Name president Hakon Haugnes wrote in a post at the ICANN Watch web site, which was the first to report the intrusion. "No other data than the index.php were replaced, and no other data could be accessed as the webserver is physically and geographically separated from our Registry Systems. We have taken our webservers down during the weekend to further reinforce our website against similar incidents in the future."

On Saturday the site displayed a hacked hacked home page stating that it had been "owned" but that no files were deleted. On Sunday visitors encountered a message saying the site was down for maintenance.

The .name top-level domain was introduced in 2001, designed for individuals and families to register domains like "mylastname.name." On Jan. 14 it will become a second level TLD, structurally and technically identical to .com and .net. "Allowing second level domain registrations will greatly facilitate sales processes and product management for Registrars and resellers worldwide and will enable all ICANN Accredited Registrars to sell .name using their existing systems and products," according to Global Name.

The Netcraft Network Examination is an automated vulnerability test of Internet-connected networks which checks for new security vulnerabilities and configuration errors caused by system and network maintenance.