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  • Handling Abuse Reports and Takedowns – Five Best Practices

    Handling Abuse Reports and Takedowns – Five Best Practices

    In the Best Practices for Handling Abuse Reports and Takedowns webinar as part of the topDNS Best Practice series on 25 February 2025, Volker Greimann, Head of Policy and Compliance, General Counsel – Online Division at Team Internet, and Sven Krohlas, Data Analyst at Spamhaus, discussed the challenges faced in…

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  • Mitigating DNS Abuse: An Interview with Volker Greimann of Team Internet

    Mitigating DNS Abuse: An Interview with Volker Greimann of Team Internet

    What’s your name, organisation and role? Volker Greimann, Team Internet, Head of Policy and Compliance – Online Where do you work and live? I work and live in Saarland, Germany What is your personal and Team Internet role in the DNS industry? Team Internet is a registry, registrar, privacy service,…

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  • Fighting Cybercrime and DNS Abuse: An Interview with Theo Geurts of Realtime Register

    Fighting Cybercrime and DNS Abuse: An Interview with Theo Geurts of Realtime Register

    What’s your name, organisation and role? Theo Geurts, Realtime Register B.V. GRC Officer Where do you work and live? Zwolle, Netherlands What is your personal and Realtime Register role in the DNS industry? We are a wholesale registrar and provide registrar backend services to other ICANN registrars. Why do you…

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  • eco Survey Shows: One in Four Germans Has Been a Victim of Illegal Websites

    eco Survey Shows: One in Four Germans Has Been a Victim of Illegal Websites

    The Internet is a daily companion for billions of people worldwide, enabling them to make their lives more connected, efficient and flexible. However, the World Wide Web also has its dark side: one of these is illegal websites, which can harm those affected by data misuse or malware, among other…

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  • GAC Communiqués and Community Activity on DNS Abuse

    GAC Communiqués and Community Activity on DNS Abuse

    This blog is a repost from the DNS Abuse Institute, reproduced with permission. This blog and the associated report aim to provide an overview of DNS Abuse related issues the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), part of the ICANN multi-stakeholder model, has identified. We also summarize the relevant community activity taking place to address these…

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  • ‘Trailblazing’ partnership takes aim at criminals profiting from child sexual abuse online

    ‘Trailblazing’ partnership takes aim at criminals profiting from child sexual abuse online

    Criminals running commercial child sexual abuse ‘brands’ are taking advantage of a ‘loophole’ to remain online. This new partnership aims to shut them down for good. WASHINGTON, Feb. 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Criminal child sexual abuse ‘brands’ are the target of a new “first-of-its-kind” partnership aiming to stop illegal sites…

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  • topDNS Best Practice Series Part 6: Addressing,evidencing, and mitigating abuse in Web3

    topDNS Best Practice Series Part 6: Addressing,evidencing, and mitigating abuse in Web3

    The topDNS webinar on “Addressing, evidencing, and mitigating abuse in Web3” was held on 12 December 2023. This was the sixth in a series of topDNS best practice webinars which showcase what the domain name industry is doing to fight DNS abuse. The webinar was moderated by Lars Steffen, Head…

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  • Article 28 of the NIS2 Directive and the DNS Industry

    Article 28 of the NIS2 Directive and the DNS Industry

    Thomas Rickert and Lars Steffen, eco Association, explain why complying with the NIS2 Directive and Article 28, in particular, presents challenges for the DNS industry. Everyone is responsible for everything, but not everyone has to do everything!

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  • Expanding the Impact of Women on the Domain Name System

    Expanding the Impact of Women on the Domain Name System

    In featuring the Domain Name System’s pivotal role in connecting the online world, Vanda Scartezini & Cheryl Langdon-Orr from DNS Women highlight how their network is leading the way to a more inclusive future. Join us on this transformative journey!

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  • Navigating the Digital Landscape: DNS Security in the Modern Age of Cyber Threats

    Navigating the Digital Landscape: DNS Security in the Modern Age of Cyber Threats

    Nameshield’s CPO Christophe Gérard emphasizes the crucial role of DNS in Internet security and explores emerging trends to protect your online presence.

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  • Unveiling the Blind Spots: Enhancing DNS Abuse and Online Harm Mitigation Through Regionally Specific Data

    Unveiling the Blind Spots: Enhancing DNS Abuse and Online Harm Mitigation Through Regionally Specific Data

    What are key factors in globally combating DNS abuse? Not only reputation blocklists, but also diverse & regional data, as reported by Gia Isabella from CleanDNS.

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  • Domain Name System: Lessons from the topDNS Best Practice Webinars

    Domain Name System: Lessons from the topDNS Best Practice Webinars

    eco Association has brought together several Internet industry members to collaboratively fight DNS abuse via its topDNS initiative. Numerous lessons and tips are now on hand from the topDNS Best Practice Webinars, as shared by Lars Steffen, eco’s Director International.

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  • 6 Tips for a Fail-safe DNS

    6 Tips for a Fail-safe DNS

    Klaus Darilion, DNS expert at nic.at, provides valuable tips and tricks on how to upgrade the security of your DNS infrastructure.

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  • From Domain Names to Trademark Protection: Safeguard Your Brand’s Digital Identity

    From Domain Names to Trademark Protection: Safeguard Your Brand’s Digital Identity

    Simone Catania, InterNetX, outlines how to choose the perfect domain name, common issues to consider and exactly how to protect your digital identity.

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  • .GIVING – There is no better way to give!

    .GIVING – There is no better way to give!

    Public Interest Registry launches new .GIVING TLD to streamline the fundraising and donation experience.

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  • Tokenization of the Internet Address Space

    Tokenization of the Internet Address Space

    Alexey Shkittin, CEO of InterLIR, and Alexander Timokhin, COO, propose transitioning from a hierarchical to a decentralized IP registry system using blockchain technology.

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  • topDNS Best Practice Series Part 5: DNSAI Compass Dashboards – Benchmarking the prevalence and persistence of malware and phishing for registries and registrars

    topDNS Best Practice Series Part 5: DNSAI Compass Dashboards – Benchmarking the prevalence and persistence of malware and phishing for registries and registrars

    The topDNS webinar on “DNSAI Compass Dashboards” was held on 28 November 2023. This was the fifth in a series of topDNS best practice webinars which showcase what the domain name industry is doing to fight DNS abuse. The webinar was moderated by Lars Steffen, Head of International, Digital Infrastructures…

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  • topDNS Best Practice Series Part 4: Recognising Good Practice in the DNS – Towards Positive, Data-Driven Policy Discussions

    topDNS Best Practice Series Part 4: Recognising Good Practice in the DNS – Towards Positive, Data-Driven Policy Discussions

    The topDNS webinar on “Recognising Good Practice in the DNS – Towards Positive, Data-Driven Policy Discussions” was held on 19 September 2023. This was the fourth part in a series of topDNS best practice webinars, which highlight the domain name industry’s efforts to fight DNS abuse. The webinar was moderated…

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  • topDNS Best Practice Series Part 3: How to Investigate Online Abuse with Free Tools

    topDNS Best Practice Series Part 3: How to Investigate Online Abuse with Free Tools

    The topDNS webinar on “How to Investigate Online Abuse with Free Tools” was held on 10August 2023. This was the third in a series of topDNS best practice webinars which showcasewhat the domain name industry is doing to fight DNS abuse. The webinar was moderated byLars Steffen, Director International at…

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  • topDNS Best Practice Series Part 2: Standards and Frameworks for Evidencing Abuse Online

    topDNS Best Practice Series Part 2: Standards and Frameworks for Evidencing Abuse Online

    The topDNS Best Practice Webinar on “Standards and Frameworks for Evidencing Abuse Online” was held as part two of the series on 13 July 2023. This webinar was hosted by: Lars Steffen, Director International at the eco Association, warmly welcomed the participants and introduced Jeffrey Bedser, CEO of Clean DNS,…

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  • topDNS Best Practice Series Part 1: How to reduce Abuse through Quality

    topDNS Best Practice Series Part 1: How to reduce Abuse through Quality

    The topDNS Best Practice Series webinar titled “How to Reduce Abuse through Quality” was held on6 June 2023. The aim of the webinar was to address DNS abuse and implement quality measures toenhance the security of the domain name system. This report provides an overview of the key pointsdiscussed during…

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  • “ICANN Community at the Helm”

    “ICANN Community at the Helm”

    ICANN78 is bringing the domain industry to Hamburg in autumn. In a short interview, Thomas Rickert, Attorney-at-Law, talks about what this involves. Thomas is Director Names & Numbers at eco – Association of the Internet Industry. What makes the ICANN78 meeting in Hamburg so special? ICANN meetings are held regularly all over the world. However,…

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  • “Know-How Protects Organisations from DNS Abuse”

    “Know-How Protects Organisations from DNS Abuse”

    Anyone who activates DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions) in a DNS zone actively protects it against attempts to misuse the Domain Name System (DNS). Patrick Koetter, Leader of the Email and Anti-Abuse Competence Groups at eco Association explains how to achieve this in an interview and in a two-day German-language…

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  • What is DNS Abuse – And What is Not?

    What is DNS Abuse – And What is Not?

    The eco initiative topDNS has published an Abuse Table to provide guidance on which cyber threats are considered to be abuse of the Domain Name System – and which are not.

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  • Workshop Report Published: State of the DNS in 2022

    Workshop Report Published: State of the DNS in 2022

    In November 2022, eco’s topDNS Initiative invited about 30 experts, including representatives of three different Directorate Generals by the EU Commission, to a workshop in Brussels to work together on a secure future for the DNS (Domain Name System). The topDNS Initiative has now published its 28-page final report.

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  • Changes in Cultural Behavior Essential for Gender Equality in the Tech World

    Changes in Cultural Behavior Essential for Gender Equality in the Tech World

    Vanda Scartezini, the co-founder of DNS Women, highlights how we need to delve deeply into cultural behavior to see as many women as men employed in tech.

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  • DNS Cookies: The Transaction Mechanism to Protect the Namespace

    DNS Cookies: The Transaction Mechanism to Protect the Namespace

    Although they are not the cure for all name server problems, DNS cookies offer an extra layer of protection and are particularly effective against off-path attacks. Simone Catania, InterNetX, looks at how DNS cookies can make DNS transactions more secure.

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  • ICANN’s Accountability & Transparency

    ICANN’s Accountability & Transparency

    In examining several real-world situations, Keith Drazek from Verisign displays ICANN’s accountability and transparency.

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  • ICANN’s Accountability and Transparency: A Retrospective on the IANA Transition

    ICANN’s Accountability and Transparency: A Retrospective on the IANA Transition

    Keith Drazek from Verisign provides a core review of ICANN’s current governance model, accountability, and transparency.

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  • Fulfilling the Potential of the Domain Name System

    Fulfilling the Potential of the Domain Name System

    The DNS has advanced technologically well beyond its original structure. Lars Steffen from eco looks at how to bridge current gaps in DNS usage.

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  • Secondary Redistribution of the IP Address Space. Can the State Help With This?

    Secondary Redistribution of the IP Address Space. Can the State Help With This?

    Alexey Shkittin from InterLIR looks at a solution for freeing up more than 30% of existing IPv4 address space that is frozen and unused.

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  • Universal Acceptance Technical Training Day: Three Questions for Ronald Schwärzler

    Universal Acceptance Technical Training Day: Three Questions for Ronald Schwärzler

    How is it possible for special characters or characters of other languages to be universally accepted on the Internet? The Universal Acceptance Technical Training Day, which is organised by eco Association and the geoTLD Group, provides assistance, explains Ronald Schwärzler in an interview.

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  • eco Welcomes New Members to the Steering Committee of the Names & Numbers Forum

    eco Welcomes New Members to the Steering Committee of the Names & Numbers Forum

    The Names & Numbers Forum of the eco Association brings together more than 140 companies from the global domain industry. The Steering Committee of the eco Competence Group is now pleased to welcome three new members.

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  • eco Initiative topDNS is Once Again Partner of the Nordic Domain Days (NDD)

    eco Initiative topDNS is Once Again Partner of the Nordic Domain Days (NDD)

    On 8 and 9 May, registries, registrars, resellers as well as service providers and investors from the domains industry will again meet in Stockholm for the Nordic Domain Days 2023.

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  • eco at Cloudfest 2023

    eco at Cloudfest 2023

    When the international cloud, hosting and internet industry meets again for Cloudfest at Europapark Rust from 21-23 March, the eco Association will be there on site.

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  • How to Reduce Fraud and Prevent Abuse

    How to Reduce Fraud and Prevent Abuse

    Our colleagues at the DNS Abuse Institute published a document that aims to demonstrate the opportunities for retail domain registrars to prevent abusive registrations while reducing potential impacts to registrants and anti-abuse teams.

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  • Measuring DNS Abuse

    Measuring DNS Abuse

    Our colleagues at the DNS Abuse Institute launched their reporting initiative called DNSAI Compass to measure the use of the DNS for phishing and malware. You can find their monthly reports here.

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  • topDNS Picks up Speed

    topDNS Picks up Speed

    Registries, registrars and hosting providers joined forces in the topDNS initiative at the beginning of 2022. Since then, the stable, reliable and secure operation of the DNS (Domain Name System) has been their common goal. It has been about half a year, so the eco Association as initiator and the…

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  • Developing Domain Name Renewal Rates for Trust & Future Success

    Developing Domain Name Renewal Rates for Trust & Future Success

    Danny Aerts & Rickard Vikstrom from DomainCrawler, on why models for the prediction of domain name renewal rates are key for the industry in assessing trust.

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  • Next Steps in Combatting DNS Abuse

    Next Steps in Combatting DNS Abuse

    Thomas Rickert and Lars Steffen from the eco Association take stock and give an outlook on collaborating in the fight against abuse involving the DNS.

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  • Mitigating DNS Abuse: Taking a firm Position and protecting Employees

    Mitigating DNS Abuse: Taking a firm Position and protecting Employees

    On eco´s dotmagazine, Kelly Hardy from CentralNic explains how companies benefit from fighting abuse and from protecting the employees on the front lines.

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  • Control your Digital Brand: On the Interplay of Defensive Domain Registrations, active Monitoring, and Brand Enforcement

    Control your Digital Brand: On the Interplay of Defensive Domain Registrations, active Monitoring, and Brand Enforcement

    On eco´s dotmagazine, Verena Kuthe from LEMARIT outlines the path to retain full control of digital brands through the best brand protection approach.

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  • Not in our Domain: How EURid is using AI and global Cooperation to tackle Cybercrime

    Not in our Domain: How EURid is using AI and global Cooperation to tackle Cybercrime

    On eco´s dotmagazine, EURid takes an innovative approach to help outwit cybercriminals, including helping to identify potentially malicious registrations at source.

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  • QPI: A “Call to Arms” on reponsible Growth

    QPI: A “Call to Arms” on reponsible Growth

    On eco´s dotmagazine, Inma Del Rosal Mendez and Brian Cimbolic from PIR explain how the Quality Performance Index supports a reduction in abusive domain registrations.

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  • Let’s end counter-productive Anti DNS Abuse Reporting

    Let’s end counter-productive Anti DNS Abuse Reporting

    On eco´s dotmagazine, Natasha Pelham-Lacey from CleanDNS, on improving an imperfect system to lower the bar for reporting abuse and increasing takedowns.

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  • DNS Abuse Institute Launches NetBeacon

    DNS Abuse Institute Launches NetBeacon

    The DNS Abuse Institute (DNSAI), which was created by Public Interest Registry (PIR) in furtherance of its non-profit mission, announced the launch of NetBeacon, the first centralized DNS Abuse reporting service. As part of its ongoing mission to combat DNS Abuse and bolster Internet safety, the DNSAI is now launching…

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  • topDNS meets… Graeme Bunton

    topDNS meets… Graeme Bunton

    At Nordic Domain Days 2022 in Stockholm we had the opportunity to talk to Graeme Bunton, Executive Director of the DNS Abuse Institute and member of the topDNS Advisory Group about DNS Abuse in general and his work at the Institute in particular.

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  • Why Preventing, Mitigating & Fighting Abuse concerns Everyone

    Why Preventing, Mitigating & Fighting Abuse concerns Everyone

    Thomas Rickert and Lars Steffen from the eco Association, explain on on eco´s dotmagazine the importance of acting and collaborating in the fight against abuse involving the DNS.

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  • Gaining more Insight into Malicious Domains

    Gaining more Insight into Malicious Domains

    Theo Geurts from Realtime Register B.V. describes on eco´s dotmagazine a proactive approach to malicious domains, based on analyzing and sharing data, and responding to incidents.

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  • The Debate around Defining, Preventing and Mitigating DNS Abuse

    The Debate around Defining, Preventing and Mitigating DNS Abuse

    What is DNS abuse? On eco´s dotmagazine, Simone Catania from InterNetX looks at the definition of DNS abuse and describes scenarios for prevention and mitigation.

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  • Fighting the Good Fight: Preventing the Spread of CSAM with Software

    Fighting the Good Fight: Preventing the Spread of CSAM with Software

    On eco´s dotmagazine, Els de Jong and Wido Potters from BIT, explain about software-based tools for combatting illegal and harmful content.

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  • Vigilance of Society against Illegal Content

    Vigilance of Society against Illegal Content

    On eco´s dotmagazine, Alexandra Koch-Skiba from the eco Complaints Office explains the attentive reporting and take-down of illegal content on the Internet.

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  • Evidence equals better DNS Abuse Mitigation

    Evidence equals better DNS Abuse Mitigation

    On eco´s dotmagazine, Gia Isabella from CleanDNS addresses the creation of standards for evidence of Internet abuse to expedite the handling of abusive content.

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  • Middle East DNS Forum 2022

    Middle East DNS Forum 2022

    ICANN org’s eighth Middle East Domain Name System (DNS) Forum has taken place virtually 16 – 18 May 2022 and offered a closer look at the evolving DNS ecosystem from a technical and policy perspective. The topDNS Initiative, the DNS Abuse Institute, and CoCCA Registry Services participated in the Panel on…

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  • Nordic Domain Days 2022

    Nordic Domain Days 2022

    In collaboration with iQ Solutions, eco´s topDNS initiative organized and co-hosted a hands-on workshop at Nordic Domain Days to address DNS Abuse. We will publish the results of the workshop shortly.

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  • Cloudfest: topDNS Campaign for Shared Commitment to DNS Security

    Cloudfest: topDNS Campaign for Shared Commitment to DNS Security

    With its topDNS initiative, the conference programme was complemented by a well-attended eco panel discussion: Keith Drazek, Vice-President Public Policy & Government Relations at VeriSign and one of the topDNS founding members, introduced the topic with his keynote on the need to regularly work side-by-side in mitigating DNS security threats. The panel discussion…

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  • Online Training – ICANN’s Technical Mission

    Online Training – ICANN’s Technical Mission

    Beyond the policy development coordination role for the community, ICANN plays a significant role coordinating the technical aspects of the Internet’s unique identifier system. eco’s topDNS Initiative and its members have set themselves the goal of fighting DNS abuse. To understand ICANN’s Technical Mission is key to follow the debate…

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  • DNS Abuse: Everyone’s Problem

    DNS Abuse: Everyone’s Problem

    On eco´s dotmagazine, Lars Forsberg from iQ looks at the need for awareness of DNS abuse, especially of the new gTLDs, because with awareness comes the ability to act.

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  • DMARC is here to stay. Now what?

    DMARC is here to stay. Now what?

    Alex Brotman, Comcast, and Patrick Koetter, Leader of the Competence Groups Email and Anti-Abuse at eco, explain on eco´s dotmagazine how DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) can help companies to protect their customers and their brands from abuse.

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  • Email Blocklists for Real-Time Detection and Mitigation

    Email Blocklists for Real-Time Detection and Mitigation

    At eco´s dotmagazine, Patrick Ben Koetter from eco Email & Anti-Abuse Competence Groups speaks to Lars Steffen from eco about blocklists, allowlists & the value of reputation.

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  • Borderless Fight against Illegal Content

    Borderless Fight against Illegal Content

    For over 20 years, the international INHOPE network has been successfully working to combat depictions of the abuse of minors, says Peter-Paul Urlaub from the eco Complaints Office at dotmagazine.

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  • Discussion Paper – DNS over HTTPS (DoH)

    Discussion Paper – DNS over HTTPS (DoH)

    Background information and explanations for non-technical readers, and a clear set of recommendations for best practice in line with privacy-enhancing techniques and informed user consent. Download the Discussion Paper here. Also on eco´s dotmagazine, Patrick Koetter, Leader of the Competence Groups Email and Anti-Abuse at eco, tells the story of…

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