ICANN asks Verisign to suspend Site Finder redirects

By Steve Malone

Posted on 22 Sep 2003 at 10:49

ICANN, The US Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, on Friday asked Verisign to drop its controversial move to redirect all mistyped and unregistered .net and .com URLs to its own Site Finder search service.

The non-profit organisation, which has responsibility for the IP address space allocation and domain name system management, says it is concerned about the effects of the initiative on the internet. ICANN has also referred the matter to its Security and Stability Advisory Committee for its opinion which is expected to report back soon.

In the meantime, ICANN has asked Verisign to 'voluntarily suspend the service', until the assessments are complete.

The Committee on Security and Stability advises the ICANN on matters relating to the security and integrity of the Internet's naming and address allocation systems.

Verisign has yet to respond to ICANN's request to suspend the redirects, but at the time of writing mistyped .net and .com addresses continue to land at Site Finder.