WASHINGTON – The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA) and the Council of
Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) Wednesday announced a public awareness
campaign to educate businesses and consumers about Internet safety,
particularly with the expected addition of more than one thousand
top-level domains – the text to the right of the dot in a web address.

The Know Your Net Campaign consists of communicating best practices tips
through the websites and social media channels of the campaign sponsors
and other interested parties: on Twitter, follow #KnowYourNet. The
campaign will also feature data from CADNA’s cybersquatting research
report, and stories from organizations that deal with cybersquatting.

“Education about Internet safety is always pertinent,” said CADNA
President Josh Bourne. “But it is especially important now because of
the massive Internet expansion that will occur over the next year when
over a thousand new top-level domains are added to the web.
Restricted-access, top-level domains like .BBB, .AARP, and .PHARMACY and
closed domains such as .MARRIOTT will provide safe online experiences.
But with potentially millions of new websites in completely open-access
spaces, it will be harder for users to identify safe, trusted,
legitimate sites from which to purchase goods and services and obtain
information.

“The Know Your Net Campaign will raise public awareness about the
dangers and pitfalls in this vast new tract of Internet real estate and
also bring greater attention to some of the promise which will come from
trusted spaces and smart new business models. It will help businesses
maintain the integrity of their brands and the safety of their customers
online and help promote rewarding online experiences for Internet
users.”

“CBBB is pleased to co-sponsor and promote Know Your Net with CADNA,
and looks forward to a campaign that will help consumers and businesses
of all sizes better protect themselves from the dangers of
cybersquatting,” said Anjali Hansen, Deputy General Counsel at the
Council of Better Business Bureaus.

Rep. Tom Marino, R-Pa., Vice Chairman of the House Subcommittee on
Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, said at the Know Your
Net Campaign kickoff that it is important to raise public awareness on
cybersquatting and new generic top-level domains (gTLDs), and that he
looks forward to potential hearings in the future. He also expressed the
need for Congress to hear from the public, including brand owners,
since the public is often the first to see issues on the horizon.

In addition to CBBB and CADNA, other participants in the campaign are
the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), which will mark October as
National Cyber Security Awareness month, and AARP.

In the next year, approximately 1,400 new gTLDs will become available
on the Internet in addition to the 22 commonly used now, such as .COM,
.EDU, and .ORG. Along with the 2,500 percent increase in gTLDs,
thousands upon thousands of new websites will be created in each gTLD’s
second-level domain space, to the left of the dot in an Internet
address.

A major part of cybercrime involves cybersquatted websites that lure
unsuspecting Internet users into a false sense of security by
incorporating well-known trademarks into domain names that host
Pay-Per-Click links, phishing scams, malware, or peddle counterfeit
goods.

Recent studies report
that cybercrime could cost the global economy as much as $500 billion
annually and potentially result in the loss of 500,000 U.S. jobs alone.

CADNA is also going to launch a letter-writing campaign to key
Members of Congress urging reform of the Anticybersquatting Consumer
Protection Act (ACPA) to strengthen deterrents against cybersquatters
and other trademark infringers.

Please contact us about sharing these Know Your Net documents with your audiences: cadna.org/contact.