News 

The US Government has told ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, to investigate and report inaccuracies in contact information.

A study by the government's General Accountability Office found that there are some 2.3 million domains, around five per cent of the total, where the owner has supplied what it described as 'obviously and intentionally false' information. Another 1.6mn domain owners had supplied incomplete details.

The US Congress has also drawn attention to the problem, prompted by the rise in phishing attacks that direct Net users to websites which try to persuade them to part with financial and personal details. Unsurprisingly, these sites are among those where the registration details are unreliable.