Application number: 1-1946-86958 for Taipei City Government

Taipei City Government

No.1, Shifu Rd., Xinyi District
Taipei 11008
TW

+886 2 2720 8889

+886 2 2758 7394

http:⁄⁄www.taipei.gov.tw

Mr. HAO MING MAI

Researcher

+886 955 297 316

ic-mai@mail.taipei.gov.tw

Mr. MING FENG HSIEH

Division Chief (Planning Division)

+886 2 2720 8889

ic-mfhsieh@mail.taipei.gov.tw

Government ⁄ Public Authority

Taiwan, Republic of China

Not Available

HAU, Lung Pin
Major

taipei

Not Available

In order to ensure that there are no known operational or rendering problems concerning the applied-for .taipei gTLD, the following efforts have been made by Taipei City Government:
16.1 Rendering Problem
Taipei City Government foresees no known rendering issues in connection with the proposed .taipei string which it is seeking to apply for as a gTLD. This answer is based upon consultation with Taipei City Government’s preferred back-end registry service provider, which has successfully launched a number of new gTLDs over the last decade. In reaching this determination, the following data points were analyzed:
 ICANN’s Security Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) entitled Alternative TLD Name Systems and Roots: Conflict, Control and Consequences (SAC009);
 IAB - RFC3696 “Application Techniques for Checking and Transformation of Names”
 Known software issues which Neustar has encountered during the last decade launching new gTLDs;
 Character type and length;
 ICANN supplemental notes to Question 16; and
 ICANN’s presentation during its Costa Rica regional meeting on TLD Universal Acceptance.
Taipei City Government will launch ASCII domain name first. Afterwards, we will launch IDN services step by step, language by language, strictly following the IDN standards of IETF and IDN guidelines issued by ICANN. In the meanwhile, Taipei City Government may elect to partner with TWNIC to provide IDN solutions. The response to Question 44 provides specific IDN information.
16.2 Committee of Registry
The Committee of Registry is the highest decision-making body in charge of the management and operation of .taipei registry. The member of the group is dedicated to the full compliance of ICANN’s policies and rules and its duties and responsibilities arising under the ICANN-Registry Agreement. To achieve the missions and goals of .taipei registry, the Committee of Registry is composed of several members representing diversified qualifications and expertise.
16.3 Operational Resources
Subject to the supervision of the Committee of Registry, the daily management and operation of .taipei registry is headed by the Executive Officer of Registry. In addition, diversified expertise and experiences are secured by collaboration with Taipei City Government’s business partners such as Neustar and professional registrars.
Taipei City Government has elected to partner with Neustar to provide back-end services for the .taipei registry. In making this decision, Taipei City Government recognizes that Neustar already possesses a production-proven registry system that can be quickly deployed and smoothly operated over its robust, flexible, and scalable world-class infrastructure.
In the meanwhile, Taipei City Government may choose an operational consultant for the .taipei registry. The consultant deploys superior technology and service capability in the professional domain name registration business and has been accredited by many TLDs registries.

18.1 Describe the mission⁄purpose of your proposed gTLD.
The missions and purposes of the proposed .taipei gTLD are described as follow:
1. The .taipei gTLD to promote the city name
As the capital city of Taiwan, Taipei has been at the center of rapid economic development in the country and has now become one of the global cities in the production of high technology and its components. This is part of the so-called Taiwan Miracle which has seen dramatic growth in the city following foreign direct investment in the 1960s. Taiwan is now a creditor economy, holding one of the worldʹs largest foreign exchange reserves of over US$352 billion as of February 2010. The foreign exchange reserves in Taiwan have increased to be US$390 billion in February, 2011. The huge amount makes Taiwan to be the country which had the fourth biggest foreign exchange reserves in the world. 
Despite the Asian financial crisis, the economy continues to expand at about 5% per year, with virtually full employment and low inflation. As of 2007, the nominal GDP of the core city of Taipei has accrued to an amount of nearly US$160 billion, while the metro region of Taipei has a nominal GDP of around US$260 billion, a record that would rank it 13th among world cities by GDP. The GDP per capita of Taipei is US$48,400, and the second highest in Asia behind Tokyo. 
Taipei and its environs have long been the foremost industrial area of Taiwan, consisting of high-tech industries of electronic products and components, electrical machinery and precision equipment. Services, including those related to commerce, transportation, and banking, have become significant contributing factors of economic growth. National brands such as ASUS, ChunghwaTelecom, China Airlines, Mandarin Airlines, Uni Air, Tatung, and D-Link are headquartered in Taipei City. The special location, abundant resources, and Critical mass effects make Taipei City the most prosperous city in Taiwan. 
Taipei City is a special municipality which is directly under the Central Government of Taiwan. The mayor of Taipei City has a four-year term and is elected by direct popular vote of its 2.7 million citizens. The on-lined presence of the Taipei City Government under the .taipei gTLD can promote its public image by providing services to businesses and citizens on an upgraded level. 
Taipei City is a famous international city, and Taipei City Government has experience of holding international events, such as the 2010 Taipei International Flora Exposition and the approaching Universiade in 2017. We believe that, through attracting more registrants to register .taipei domain names, Taipei City can get more exposure and attentions, which may give Taipei City more opportunities to hold international activities and market the name of Taipei City. 
2. The .taipei gTLD to promote the image of the city
As one of the most well-known cities in Asia, Taipei City has special culture and image. In the mind of Taiwanese, Taipei City represents fancy dreams and fast life style. Taipei City is also the city of arts and entertainments. Public arts and exhibitions can be found everywhere, and these all make Taipei City unforgettable in people’s minds. Citizens of Taipei City show their love of the city in several surveys, such as the survey of happiness, which indicated that Taipei City got the highest scores of happiness in 2011, remaining the happiest city of Taiwan. 
Through the eyes of visitors, it is readily to recognize Taipei City as a friendly and warm city. Taipei City is always open-armed for citizens and visitors, establishing convenient Infrastructures and amicable services. Taipei City is a city which never let you down.
Media and movies can also express the charm of Taipei City. Besides being friendly and warm, Taipei City also presents mystery and elegance in the shots of video cameras. Through the movie “Au Revoir Taipei”, Taipei City is attractive and mysterious. Book stores are all over the streets; fancy night lives and smiles of people can catch the eyes of audience. Taipei City is also a place with archaic history. In the movie ”Monga”, the old era of Taipei was showed and interpreted in a beautiful way. Everyone can find the parts of Taipei City to love. 
3. The .taipei gTLD to boost city tourism
Ranked 17th in the survey of Index of Global Destination Cities in 2011(reported by MasterCard International), Taipei City remains popular and attracts more tourists year after year. Tourism is a significant component of the local economy with international visitors totaling almost 3 million in 2008. Taipei has many top tourist attractions and contributes a significant amount to the US$6.8 billion tourism industry in Taiwan.
In Taipei, you can find the world’s 2nd tallest building and the biggest collection of Chinese art. Taipei invites you into a world of fascinating contras – a mix of the modern and traditional with a generous dash of energy and friendly smiles to make Taipei one of your most memorable trips to Asia.
Incense-veiled temples dating back to dynastic times blend seamlessly with a neon street life of a decidedly more modern era. Taipei has dozens of world-class restaurants where gourmets can sample the best regional Chinese cuisines; and for the gourmand, there are plenty of night markets serving up scrumptious evening snacks in an environment of chaotic excitement and fun. After tasting foods of Taipei, tourists can find beautiful sceneries or creative markets when walking on the street. Taipei City is a place which always gives visitors new experiences and new perspectives. 
The polarities of Taipei are vividly present with the joining of the urban and natural worlds. Just a few minutes away from the heart of the city, you can soak away the cares of the world in mineral-rich hot springs nestled in the lush mountain foothills ringing the Taipei Basin. Taipei is the city which is hugged by mountains and sea. Except beautiful flower blossoms in the famous Shilin Residence, there are incredible sunset and night scenes on Yangmingshan. And throughout the city there are plenty of trails, parks, and other oases of tranquility to lift and invigorate your spirits. 
Whether you are just stopping over en route to another Asian destination, or planning a longer stay, Taipei is a multi-faceted treasure that will call you back again and again. Now you can discover the heart of Asia in beautiful Taipei at the new gTLD of .taipei.
4. The .taipei gTLD to enhance visitor services
Taipei is the political, economic, and cultural center of Taiwan. The National Palace Museum which has one of the largest collections of Chinese artifacts and artworks in the world is located in Taipei. Considered to be a global city, Taipei has railways, high speed rail, highways, Mass Rapid Transportations, airports, and bus lines connecting Taipei with all parts of the island.
The on-lined presence of the Taipei City Government under the .taipei gTLD can promote its public image by providing services to businesses and citizens on an upgraded level. The Taipei City governmental functions will have impacts far beyond their traditional jurisdictions and geographic limits. 
In addition, Taipei City is the core of Taiwanese spectaculars and Chinese culture. By introducing the .taipei gTLD into the domain name space, any business entity or community with Taiwanese or Chinese connections around the world may seek to establish presence on the Internet with a Taipei City identity instead of simply under ccTLDs or other existing gTLDs. .taipei gTLD can make these business entities or communities more recognizable. Through the promotion of .taipei gTLD, these entities and communities can get benefits and more attentions.
For the visitors of the .taipei gTLD, it is easier and more convenient for them to identify the city name of Taipei and distinguish the products and services from alternative geographic locations.

i.What is the goal of your proposed gTLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation?
This .taipei gTLD innovative to create a one-shop show room, where all the websites with connections of Taipei City government can be accessed by visitors everywhere. The introduction or expansion of gTLDs with “.taipei” has promoted innovation in the domain name market by using the city name of Taipei to connect Taipei city life with people and businesses around the world.
A .taipei provides specific services for a specialized community that has unique needs not otherwise served by a ccTLD or other existing gTLDs. The introduction or expansion of gTLDs with “.taipei” has promoted competition, consumer’s trust and visitor’s choice. Taipei City welcomes applications to register domain names under .taipei to promote its city name and enhance visitor services. It is a win-win solution for both Taipei City and registrants.
As an applicant for a new gTLD, Taipei City is, in fact, applying to create and operate a registry business supporting the Internetʹs domain name system. This involves a number of significant responsibilities as the operator of a new gTLD Registry. Therefore, Taipei City will provide the Registry Services as required in the ICANN-Registry Agreement, and absorbs latest news and industry trends in order to provide better services.
Taipei City Information Technology Steering Committee will be the highest policy and decision making authority responsible for the management and operation of .taipei Registry. The mayor and vice mayor will be conveners of the Committee, and the Committee of Registry is composed members representing diversified qualification and expertise. It will also seek to partner with a highly acclaimed gTLD registry such as Neustar in Taiwan to provide back-end services for the .taipei Registry. The remaining seats will be reserved for, for example, an independent counselor who is a legal expert in the management of gTLDs and domain name dispute resolutions. The Committee of Registry meets at least once in half a year and whenever required by its duties.
Besides organizing the Taipei City Information Technology Steering Committee, Taipei City will establish a team of domain name counselors. The members of the team of domain name counselors may be the representatives and executives of, include but not limited to, brand, strategy and marketing department and the experts of the law, consumer protection, domains and information security. The team of domain name counselors is independent which only provides opinions for the Taipei City Information Technology Steering Committee. The team of domain counselors will not involve in daily domain name operations.
Taipei City will seek domain name operators and back-end services provider Neustar for .taipei registry, and Taipei City will remain the role of supervisor, communicating with partners which provide services for .taipei registry and keeping .taipei registry operating steadily.
Below is a list of recent major international events hosted by Taipei City:
2001 Asian Baseball Championship; 2001 Baseball World Cup; 2001 AFC Womenʹs Championship; 2004 FIFA Futsal World Championship; 2007 Baseball World Cup; 2009 Summer Deaflympics; 2010 Taipei International Flora Exposition; Upcoming 2017 Summer Universiade.
Taipei City is the core of Taiwanese spectaculars and Chinese culture. By introducing the .taipei into the domain name space, any business entity or community with Taiwanese or Chinese connections around the world may seek to establish presence on the Internet with a Taipei city identity instead of simply under ccTLDs or other existing gTLDs.
ii.What do you anticipate your proposed gTLD will add to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation?
A .taipei provides specific services for a specialized community that has unique needs not otherwise served by a ccTLD or other existing gTLDs. The introduction or expansion of gTLDs with “.taipei” has promoted competition, consumer’s trust and visitor’s choice.
While current gTLDs tend to focus on a generic community such as commercial entities, network providers, organizations, museums, cooperatives, etc. within the global Internet, .taipei will embrace a horizontal perspective with a clear city name to reach and enrich the broad global community. .taipei registry is not going to establish any limitation for registrants. Taipei City encourages every person who would like to apply for .taipei to register.
Unlike ccTLDs also, which provides for an audience of a specific country, .taipei will allow the user to express a city name relevance in order to associate with the city of Taipei and distinguish the products or services from providers of alternative geographic location.
The introduction or expansion of gTLDs with “.taipei” has promoted innovation in the domain name market by using the city name of Taipei to connect Taipei city life and Taipei image with people and businesses around the world.
iii.What goals does your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?
“.taipei” is a highly recognizable string that is short, easy to remember, versatile but specific and focused on the Taipei city identity. It captures the essence of the community served and is a sustainable phrase that will not easily become obsolete. “.taipei” traverses a broad region yet elicits a clear concept and coherence of the community, providing Registrants tremendous value in establishing an Internet presence with global recognition and regional significance.
Taipei City is the core of Taiwanese spectaculars and Chinese culture. By introducing the .taipei into the domain name space, any business entity or community with Taiwanese or Chinese connections around the world may seek to establish presence on the Internet with a Taipei city identity instead of simply under ccTLDs or gTLDs. For the users of the .taipei, it is easier and more convenient for them to identify the city name of Taipei and distinguish the products or services from alternative geographic locations.
The relationship between registrants and .taipei registry is going to be a long-term cooperation. In the future, .taipei registry will plan several marketing campaigns to promote .taipei. Characteristics and ideas of registrants will also be considered in these campaigns which can benefit both registrants and .taipei registry.
iv.Provide a complete description of the applicant’s intended registration policies in support of the goals listed above.
1.Launch Timeline
(1) Registry Reserved Names
The Registry has reserved certain names from registration under the .taipei , including, without limitation, the names appearing on the list of ICANN reserved gTLD names, the names and acronyms of countries and territories under ISO 3166-2, geographic names and acronyms under the jurisdiction of Taipei City and the names and acronyms of the Taipei Cityal Branches or Programs reserved by the Registry for its own purposes and for use by third parties.
(2)No qualifications for Registrants
No Registrant identification will be required for applications for registration of names under the .taipei. Applicants with or without a valid Taipei citizen or business ID number are all welcome to apply for a name under the .taipei.
(3)Sunrise Period
This is a pre-launch opportunity for any Applicant to submit Registration Requests for .taipei names corresponding to their registered trademarks in use. The Registry will use the Trademark Clearinghouse to support its pre-launch period rights protection mechanisms (RPMs). These RPMs will consist of a Trademark Claims Service and a Sunrise Period.
(4)General Availability
Following the opening of general registrations: Applicants may apply on a first-come, first-served basis to register .taipei names. Innovative marketing campaigns will be launched from time to time.
2.Registration of .taipei names
Registration Requests for .taipei names may be submitted only by an ICANN-accredited Registrar. The Registry will not accept a Registration Request for a .taipei name unless it meets the technical and syntax requirements promulgated by ICANN. The Registry may reject a Registration Request, or may delete, revoke, suspend, cancel or transfer a Registration in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Registry-Registrant Agreement.
3.Term
.taipei names may be registered for a period of no less than one (1) year and no more than ten (10) years, commencing on the date on which the Registration Request submitted by an ICANN-accredited Registrar is created by the Registry. All Registration Requests must specify the registration period. It is the obligation of an ICANN-accredited Registrar, and not the Registry, to notify a Registrant in advance of the termination or expiration of a Registration.
4.Payment to the Registry
The Registry will not accept a Registration Request, and will not renew a Registration at the end of the applicable Term unless it has received payment in full from the applicable ICANN-accredited Registrar. Names subject to a Registration Request, or names that result in a Registration will be released in accordance with Registry Policies and ICANN Requirements.
5.Registry-Registrant Agreement
Prior to submitting a Registration Request, the ICANN-accredited Registrar must secure the affirmative consent of the Applicant to the terms and conditions of the Registry-Registrant Agreement, as amended from time to time and posted on the Registry Website.
6.Trademark Claims Notice
At the close of the Sunrise Period, if more than one Sunrise application is made for a domain name, all Sunrise Applicants for that domain name will be notified of the claims made by the other Sunrise Applicants for that name.
By submitting a Registration Request, Applicant agrees that the Registry and⁄or its authorized Trademark Clearinghouse is authorized to share information relating to Applicant’s Registration Request with other applicants, as indicated in the Trademark Claims Notice above. In the event any Sunrise Applicant proceeds with a Registration Request, such Applicant will be deemed on notice of the Trademark Claims submitted by the other Sunrise Applicant(s) and may not claim lack of notice with regard to such Applicant(s) in any subsequent dispute proceeding.
7.Certification ⁄ Liability
All Registration Requests must include the Applicant’s certification, representation, and warranty that the request is compliant with the relevant requirements. Requests that do not contain the required certification and warranty will be rejected by the Registry.
By submitting a Registration Request, Applicants acknowledge, agree, and accept sole and direct liability for damages suffered by any third party injured as a consequence of a Registration Request of a name under the .taipei.
8.Determinations
The determinations of the Registry and its authorized Trademark Clearinghouse regarding any Registration Requests shall be final and non-appealable; provided, however, that such determination will not affect rights Applicants may have under applicable law, ICANN policies, or Registry-provided dispute resolution procedures.
9.General Availability
During General Availability, Registration Requests made by anyone for Available Names will be allocated by the Registry through ICANN-accredited Registrars on a first-come, first-served basis subject to the Registry Policies and ICANN Requirements.
10.Preventing Abusive Registrations
As part of this process, the Registry will validate contact information for the Registrant and secure the Registrant’s affirmative consent to the Registry-Registrant Agreement. All Registrants agree to participate in and abide by any determinations made as part the Registry’s dispute resolution procedures, including the Charter Eligibility Dispute Resolution Procedure (CEDRP), the Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URS), and ICANN‘s Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).
The Registry will select a neutral third-party as its dispute resolution service provider for the CEDRP, URS, and UDRP procedures. The detailed rules, procedures, and fees for the dispute resolution service provider will be published on the Registry Website.
v.Will your proposed gTLD impose any measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users? If so, please describe any such measures.
Taipei City understands how important privacy or confidential information is to Registrants or users. This privacy policy explains how we process information that identifies Registrants or users personally, when Registrants or users:
•visit websites operated by Taipei City (“Registry Websites”);
•or register for .taipei names.
1.This privacy policy applies only to Personal Information that Taipei City collects from and about Registrants or users. It does not apply to information collected by Registrars or third parties when Registrants or users apply to register a .taipei name with them nor does it apply to information collected on third party sites that Registrants or users may access via a link on Registry Websites.
By using Registry Websites or services, including without limitation by registering or reserving a .taipei name, Registrants or users consent to the collection, use, processing, and transfer of Registrants or users’ Personal Information in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy. Registrants or users consent to the collection, use, processing, and⁄or disclosure of Registrants or users’ sensitive information and their Personal Information in accordance with the provisions of this Privacy Policy. If Registrants or users are visiting the Registry Website from a country other than the country in which the Registry servers are located, including without limitation visiting from the European Union, Registrants or users’ communications with the Registry may result in the transfer of their sensitive information as well as their Personal Information across international boundaries; Registrants or users consent to such transfer.
2.Information Registrants or Users Provided on Registry Websites:
Taipei City collects Personal Information that Registrants or users directly provide on any Registry Websites, for example, when Registrants or users submit a question or comment, request to receive updates from Taipei City, or submit information regarding Registrants or users’ interest in a .taipei name. Taipei City also collects information that Registrants or users post on public forums or in chat rooms on Registry Websites.
3.Information Collected Automatically on Registry Websites:
When Registrants or users visit Registry Websites, Taipei City’s servers automatically log certain information including without limitation: the type of browser Registrants or users are using, IP address, other information about Registrants or users’ geographic location, and the domain name of Registrants or users’ Internet service provider.
Taipei City’s servers also log information about Registrants or users’ activity on Registry Websites, including without limitation the time and date of their visits, the pages they view on any Registry Website, Registrants or users’ responses to offerings and advertisements (if any) presented on the Registry Websites, and the searches Registrants or users perform, including without limitation any WHOIS searches.
Unless Taipei City has provided Personal Information directly, for example by registering for updates, Taipei City cannot and does not attempt to use log data to identify Registrants or users personally.
4.Use of Personal Information Collected on Registry Websites:
Taipei City uses Personal Information collected on all Registry Websites to operate and improve those Registry Websites, to fulfill Registrants or users’ requests and respond to their inquiries, to understand how Registrants or users use the Registry Websites, and to personalize the content and advertisements Registrants or users see on those Registry Websites.
5.Collection, Use, & Disclosure of Personal Information from Domain Name Registrants
Taipei City collects Personal Information when Registrants or users apply to register a .taipei domain name through any of the ICANN-accredited Registrars.
6.Information Collected in Connection with Domain Name Registration
Taipei City collects Registrants or users’ personal information with regard to trademark rights Information, registration Information, and monitoring Information.
7.Use of Information Collected for Domain Name Registrations
Taipei City uses Registrants or users’ personal information with regard to trademark rights Information, registration Information and monitoring Information. Taipei City also uses this information to operate its business in the ordinary course, improve its existing services, develop new services, and to inform Registrants or users about services or information that may be of interest to them.
8.Disclosure of Personal Information
Taipei City discloses Registration Information to the public in the form of Whois records, as required by ICANN. Taipei City does not disclose Registrants or users’ age-related information, credit card information, or other supplemental information to the public in the form of Whois records. Taipei City may disclose other Personal Information or Trademark Rights Information to fulfill Registrants or users’ requests for services, to respond to Registrants or users’ inquiries, to third parties as necessary to deliver services associated with operating a website in the .taipei.
Taipei City does not share Registrants or users’ sensitive information, Personal Information, Trademark Rights Information, or Registration Information with third parties without Registrants or users’ affirmative consent unless it is required otherwise.
Taipei City may use agents and contractors in order to help operate the Registry Websites to provide its service information and to operate its business. Registrants or users expressly consent to the sharing of their Personal Information with Taipei City’s agents, contractors and service providers under the premise that, if its agents and contractors have access to Registrants or users’ Personal Information, they are contractually required to safeguard that information and prohibited from using that information for any other purpose.
Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communications will help to achieve your projected benefits.
As the city government of Taiwan’s national capital, it is Taipei City’s legal duty to make the information available to the public by regularly holding press conferences and other activities to strengthen public relations. Taipei City often announces city-related news and city annual reports for public information. Besides these PR campaigns, Taipei City launches from time to time marketing initiatives to gain favorable publicity, including traditional, on-lined and TV advertisements. Taipei City leverages with different media to target diversified visitors.
The elements of .taipei will also be added into city marketing campaigns, such as placement marketing of movie and trendy drama, social network marketing, and word-of-mouth effects. Integrated marketing communications of Taipei City will achieve the goal for benefiting communities and registrants.
As a leading front runner in the Chinese cultures around the world, Taipei City always remains the center of Asian countries and the most popular topic among businesses and people. Taipei City will further leverage this new marketing tool, .taipei, to promote the newly launched i-cloud services to its citizens and visitors. Taipei City will utilize integrated one-stop services to connect .taipei domain names with the unexplored needs of Registrants.

i. How will multiple applications for a particular domain name be resolved, for example, by auction or on a first-come⁄first serve basis?
To resolve multiple applications for a particular domain name, .taipei gTLD Registry will implement its registration policy and launch timeline, aside from certain names reserved by the Registry. 
Sunrise Period
This is a pre-launch opportunity for Applicants to submit Registration Requests for .taipei gTLD names corresponding to their registered trademarks in use. The Registry will use the Trademark Clearinghouse to support its pre-launch period rights protection mechanisms (RPMs). These RPMs will consist of a Trademark Claims Service and a Sunrise Period. 
General Availability
Following the opening of general registrations: Applicants may apply on a first-come, first-served basis to register .taipei gTLD names.
Premium Names
The Registry may allocate Premium Names from time to time in its discretion via (i) request for proposal; (ii) auction; and⁄or (iii) other reasonable mechanisms.
UDRP
Taipei City Government is firmly committed to the protection of trademark rights and to implement the mandatory rights protection mechanisms contained in the Applicant Guidebook and detailed in Specification 7 of the ICANN-Registry Agreement. A neutral dispute resolution service provider will be engaged by the .taipei gTLD Registry in domain name dispute resolution in compliance with UDRP and Rules of UDRP promulgated by ICANN and its own supplementary rules.
ii. Explain any cost benefits for registrants you intend to implement (e.g., advantageous pricing, introductory discounts, bulk registration discounts).
Pre-launch Period
During the pre-launch period, there are certain names reserved by the Registry for the exclusive registration of Taipei City Government or third parties to establish their on-lined Taipei City identity. There are incentives in the promotion of pre-launch registrations. 
General Availability
During the period for General Availability, Taipei City Government will offer cost benefits for Registrants such as advantageous pricing, introductory discounts, bulk registration discounts or any other price incentives subject to various promotion campaigns. Taipei City Government will leverage with its partners for all kinds of promotion campaigns.
iii. Note that the Registry Agreement requires that registrars be offered the option to obtain initial domain name registrations for periods of one to ten years at the discretion of the registrar, but no greater than ten years. Additionally, the Registry Agreement requires advance written notice of price increases. Do you intend to make contractual commitments to registrants regarding the magnitude of price escalation? If so, please describe your plans.
Taipei City Government strongly believes that a good business relationship with all the ICANN-accredited Registrars will ensure the successful management and operation of .taipei gTLD Registry. Taipei City Government will honor its commitment under the Registry Agreement, which requires that Registrars be offered the option to obtain initial domain name registrations for periods of one to ten years at the discretion of the Registrar, but no greater than ten years.
Additionally, Taipei City Government will also honor its commitment under the Registry Agreement, which requires advance written notice of price increases. Yes, Taipei City Government will make contractual commitments to Registrants regarding the magnitude of price escalation.
Taipei City Government will not only adopt a transparent pricing policy, but also give our Applicants or Registrants a three-month prior notice before any price escalation becomes effective. To assure that our Applicants and Registrants will be timely informed, Taipei City Government will notify them by e-mail, i-cloud webpage, and official website announcement. Taipei City Government also promises that any price escalation will only take effect for our new Applicants and that the interests of our existing Registrants will not be compromised in any way.

No

Not Available

Yes

Due to the policy of .taipei registry, .taipei registry will reserve related geographic names (including full names and abbreviations) of Republic of China, such as names of cities, roads, and districts. These geographic names can only be registered by related departments of the government of Republic of China, and .taipei registry will validate registrations of strings we mentioned above.
To protect other geographic names, .taipei registry will block all capital city names of a country or territory listed in the ISO 3166-1 standard, city names, sub-national place names listed in the ISO 3166-2 standard, names listed in the ISO 3166-3 standard, and names listed as a UNESCO region or appearing on the“Composition of macro geographic (continental) or regions, geographic sub regions, and selected economic and other groupings” list. All these names listed above are prohibited from general registration. Only registrants from related departments of the government of Republic of China can apply to register related geographic names. 
Through this policy, .taipei registry believes that the geographic names protection will avoid domain name abuse and protect rights of related governments.

23.1 Introduction 
Taipei City Government has elected to partner with Neustar, Inc to provide back-end services for the .taipei registry. In making this decision, Taipei City Government recognized that Neustar already possesses a production-proven registry system that can be quickly deployed and smoothly operated over its robust, flexible, and scalable world-class infrastructure. The existing registry services will be leveraged for the .taipei registry. The following section describes the registry services to be provided. In the meanwhile, Taipei City Government shall choose an operational consultant. 
23.2 Standard Technical and Business Components
23.2.1 Standard Technical Component
Neustar will provide the highest level of service while delivering a secure, stable and comprehensive registry platform. Taipei City Government will use Neustar’s Registry Services platform to deploy the .taipei registry, by providing the following Registry Services: 
 Registry-Registrar Shared Registration Service (SRS)
 Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP)
 Domain Name System (DNS)
 WHOIS
 DNSSEC
 Data Escrow
 Dissemination of Zone Files using Dynamic Updates
 Access to Bulk Zone Files
 Dynamic WHOIS Updates
 IPv6 Support
 Rights Protection Mechanisms
 Internationalized Domain Names (IDN). 
The following is a description of each of the services. 
SRS 
Neustar’s secure and stable SRS is a production-proven, standards-based, highly reliable, and high-performance domain name registration and management system. The SRS includes an EPP interface for receiving data from registrars for the purpose of provisioning and managing domain names and name servers. The response to Question 24 provides specific SRS information. 
EPP
The .taipei registry will use the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) for the provisioning of domain names. The EPP implementation will be fully compliant with all RFCs. With more than 10 gTLD, ccTLD, and private TLDs implementations, Neustar has extensive experience building EPP-based registries. Additional discussion on the EPP approach is presented in the response to Question 25.
DNS
Taipei City Government will leverage Neustar’s world-class DNS network of geographically distributed nameserver sites to provide the highest level of DNS service. The service utilizes “Anycast” routing technology, and supports both IPv4 and IPv6. The DNS network is highly proven, and currently provides service to over 20 TLDs and thousands of enterprise companies. Additional information on the DNS solution is presented in the response to Questions 35.
WHOIS
Neustar’s existing standard WHOIS solution will be used for the .taipei. The service provides supports for near real-time dynamic updates. The design and construction is agnostic with regard to data display policy is flexible enough to accommodate any data model. In addition, a searchable WHOIS service that complies with all ICANN requirements will be provided. The following WHOIS options will be provided:
Standard WHOIS (Port 43)
Standard WHOIS (Web)
Searchable WHOIS (Web)
DNSSEC
An RFC compliant DNSSEC implementation will be provided using existing DNSSEC capabilities. Neustar is an experienced provider of DNSSEC services, and currently manages signed zones for three large top level domains: .biz, .us, and .co. Additional information on DNSSEC, including the management of security extensions is found in the response to Question 43.
Data Escrow
Data escrow will be performed in compliance with all ICANN requirements in conjunction with an approved data escrow provider. The data escrow service will:
 Protect against data loss
 Follow industry best practices
 Ensure easy, accurate, and timely retrieval and restore capability in the event of a hardware failure
 Minimizes the impact of software or business failure.
Additional information on the Data Escrow service is provided in the response to Question 38.
Dissemination of Zone Files using Dynamic Updates
Dissemination of zone files will be provided through a dynamic, near real-time process. Updates will be performed within the specified performance levels. The proven technology ensures that updates pushed to all nodes within a few minutes of the changes being received by the SRS. Additional information on the DNS updates may be found in the response to Question 35.
Access to Bulk Zone Files
Taipei City Government will provide third party access to the bulk zone file in accordance with specification 4, Section 2 of the Registry Agreement. Credentialing and dissemination of the zone files will be facilitated through the Central Zone Data Access Provider.
Dynamic WHOIS Updates
Updates to records in the WHOIS database will be provided via dynamic, near real-time updates. Guaranteed delivery message oriented middleware is used to ensure each individual WHOIS server is refreshed with dynamic updates. This component ensures that all WHOIS servers are kept current as changes occur in the SRS, while also decoupling WHOIS from the SRS. Additional information on WHOIS updates is presented in response to Question 26.
IPv6 Support
The .taipei registry will provide IPv6 support in the following registry services: SRS, WHOIS, and DNS⁄DNSSEC. In addition, the registry supports the provisioning of IPv6 AAAA records. A detailed description on IPv6 is presented in the response to Question 36.
Required Rights Protection Mechanisms
Taipei City Government, will provide all ICANN required Rights Mechanisms, including: 
 Trademark Claims Service
 Trademark Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution Procedure (PDDRP)
 Registration Restriction Dispute Resolution Procedure (RRDRP)
 UDRP
 URS
 Sunrise service.
More information is presented in the response to Question 29.
Internationalized Domain Names (IDN)

IDN registrations are provided in full compliance with the IDNA protocol. Neustar possesses extensive experience offering IDN registrations in numerous TLDs, and its IDN implementation uses advanced technology to accommodate the unique bundling needs of certain languages. Character mappings are easily constructed to block out characters that may be deemed as confusing to users. A detailed description of the IDN implementation is presented in response to Question 44.

23.2.2 Standard Business Component
.taipei registry consists of Committee of Registry and an operational group. The Committee of Registry is the highest decision-making body for policy development. The member of the committee is assigned by Taipei City Government. The members are dedicated to the full compliance of ICANN’s policies and rules and its duties and responsibilities arising under the ICANN-Registry Agreement. The Committee is composed of several members representing diversified qualifications and expertise. The operational consultant accredited by Taipei City Government will be the operational group of .taipei registry and will handle any business or issues related to the .taipei domain. The operational consultant will develop several working groups for management of .taipei domain.
 Registrar relationship management
 Customer Support
 System & Network management
The following is a description of each of the services. 
Registrar relationship management
The relationship between .taipei registry and ICANN accredited registrar will be managed under registrar relationship management. 
Customer Support
For customer support, The operational consultant will designate a group which is especially responsible to resolve any problems or questions concerning .taipei registration.
System & Network management 
The System & Network management will handle all the technical issues and problems related to .taipei domain names. 
23.3 Unique Services 
Taipei City Government will not be offering services that are unique to .taipei.
23.4 Security or Stability Concerns 
All services offered are standard registry services that have no known security or stability concerns. Neustar has demonstrated a strong track record of security and stability within the industry. 

23. Registry Service
23.1 Introduction 
Taipei City Government has elected to partner with Neustar, Inc to provide back-end services for the .taipei registry. In making this decision, Taipei City Government recognized that Neustar already possesses a production-proven registry system that can be quickly deployed and smoothly operated over its robust, flexible, and scalable world-class infrastructure. The existing registry services will be leveraged for the .taipei registry. The following section describes the registry services to be provided. In the meanwhile, Taipei City Government shall choose an operational consultant. 
23.2 Standard Technical and Business Components
23.2.1 Standard Technical Component
Neustar will provide the highest level of service while delivering a secure, stable and comprehensive registry platform. Taipei City Government will use Neustar’s Registry Services platform to deploy the .taipei registry, by providing the following Registry Services: 
 Registry-Registrar Shared Registration Service (SRS)
 Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP)
 Domain Name System (DNS)
 WHOIS
 DNSSEC
 Data Escrow
 Dissemination of Zone Files using Dynamic Updates
 Access to Bulk Zone Files
 Dynamic WHOIS Updates
 IPv6 Support
 Rights Protection Mechanisms
 Internationalized Domain Names (IDN). 
The following is a description of each of the services. 
SRS 
Neustar’s secure and stable SRS is a production-proven, standards-based, highly reliable, and high-performance domain name registration and management system. The SRS includes an EPP interface for receiving data from registrars for the purpose of provisioning and managing domain names and name servers. The response to Question 24 provides specific SRS information. 
EPP
The .taipei registry will use the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) for the provisioning of domain names. The EPP implementation will be fully compliant with all RFCs. With more than 10 gTLD, ccTLD, and private TLDs implementations, Neustar has extensive experience building EPP-based registries. Additional discussion on the EPP approach is presented in the response to Question 25.
DNS
Taipei City Government will leverage Neustar’s world-class DNS network of geographically distributed nameserver sites to provide the highest level of DNS service. The service utilizes “Anycast” routing technology, and supports both IPv4 and IPv6. The DNS network is highly proven, and currently provides service to over 20 TLDs and thousands of enterprise companies. Additional information on the DNS solution is presented in the response to Questions 35.
WHOIS
Neustar’s existing standard WHOIS solution will be used for the .taipei. The service provides supports for near real-time dynamic updates. The design and construction is agnostic with regard to data display policy is flexible enough to accommodate any data model. In addition, a searchable WHOIS service that complies with all ICANN requirements will be provided. The following WHOIS options will be provided:
Standard WHOIS (Port 43)
Standard WHOIS (Web)
Searchable WHOIS (Web)
DNSSEC
An RFC compliant DNSSEC implementation will be provided using existing DNSSEC capabilities. Neustar is an experienced provider of DNSSEC services, and currently manages signed zones for three large top level domains: .biz, .us, and .co. Additional information on DNSSEC, including the management of security extensions is found in the response to Question 43.
Data Escrow
Data escrow will be performed in compliance with all ICANN requirements in conjunction with an approved data escrow provider. The data escrow service will:
 Protect against data loss
 Follow industry best practices
 Ensure easy, accurate, and timely retrieval and restore capability in the event of a hardware failure
 Minimizes the impact of software or business failure.
Additional information on the Data Escrow service is provided in the response to Question 38.
Dissemination of Zone Files using Dynamic Updates
Dissemination of zone files will be provided through a dynamic, near real-time process. Updates will be performed within the specified performance levels. The proven technology ensures that updates pushed to all nodes within a few minutes of the changes being received by the SRS. Additional information on the DNS updates may be found in the response to Question 35.
Access to Bulk Zone Files
Taipei City Government will provide third party access to the bulk zone file in accordance with specification 4, Section 2 of the Registry Agreement. Credentialing and dissemination of the zone files will be facilitated through the Central Zone Data Access Provider.
Dynamic WHOIS Updates
Updates to records in the WHOIS database will be provided via dynamic, near real-time updates. Guaranteed delivery message oriented middleware is used to ensure each individual WHOIS server is refreshed with dynamic updates. This component ensures that all WHOIS servers are kept current as changes occur in the SRS, while also decoupling WHOIS from the SRS. Additional information on WHOIS updates is presented in response to Question 26.
IPv6 Support
The .taipei registry will provide IPv6 support in the following registry services: SRS, WHOIS, and DNS⁄DNSSEC. In addition, the registry supports the provisioning of IPv6 AAAA records. A detailed description on IPv6 is presented in the response to Question 36.
Required Rights Protection Mechanisms
Taipei City Government, will provide all ICANN required Rights Mechanisms, including: 
 Trademark Claims Service
 Trademark Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution Procedure (PDDRP)
 Registration Restriction Dispute Resolution Procedure (RRDRP)
 UDRP
 URS
 Sunrise service.
More information is presented in the response to Question 29.
Internationalized Domain Names (IDN)

IDN registrations are provided in full compliance with the IDNA protocol. Neustar possesses extensive experience offering IDN registrations in numerous TLDs, and its IDN implementation uses advanced technology to accommodate the unique bundling needs of certain languages. Character mappings are easily constructed to block out characters that may be deemed as confusing to users. A detailed description of the IDN implementation is presented in response to Question 44.

23.2.2 Standard Business Component
.taipei registry consists of Committee of Registry and an operational group. The Committee of Registry is the highest decision-making body for policy development. The member of the committee is assigned by Taipei City Government. The members are dedicated to the full compliance of ICANN’s policies and rules and its duties and responsibilities arising under the ICANN-Registry Agreement. The Committee is composed of several members representing diversified qualifications and expertise. The operational consultant accredited by Taipei City Government will be the operational group of .taipei registry and will handle any business or issues related to the .taipei domain. The operational consultant will develop several working groups for management of .taipei domain.
 Registrar relationship management
 Customer Support
 System & Network management
The following is a description of each of the services. 
Registrar relationship management
The relationship between .taipei registry and ICANN accredited registrar will be managed under registrar relationship management. 
Customer Support
For customer support, The operational consultant will designate a group which is especially responsible to resolve any problems or questions concerning .taipei registration.
System & Network management 
The System & Network management will handle all the technical issues and problems related to .taipei domain names. 
23.3 Unique Services 
Taipei City Government will not be offering services that are unique to .taipei.
23.4 Security or Stability Concerns 
All services offered are standard registry services that have no known security or stability concerns. Neustar has demonstrated a strong track record of security and stability within the industry. 

25.1 Introduction
Taipei City Government’s back-end registry operator, Neustar, has over 10 years of experience operating EPP based registries. They deployed one of the first EPP registries in 2001 with the launch of .biz. In 2004, they were the first gTLD to implement EPP 1.0. Over the last ten years Neustar has implemented numerous extensions to meet various unique TLD requirements. Neustar will leverage its extensive experience to ensure Taipei City Government is provided with an unparalleled EPP based registry. The following discussion explains the EPP interface which will be used for the .taipei registry. This interface exists within the protocol farm layer as described in Question 24 and is depicted in Figure 25-1.
 
25.2 EPP Interface
Registrars are provided with two different interfaces for interacting with the registry. Both are EPP based, and both contain all the functionality necessary to provision and manage domain names. The primary mechanism is an EPP interface to connect directly with the registry. This is the interface registrars will use for most of their interactions with the registry. 
However, an alternative web GUI (Registry Administration Tool) that can also be used to perform EPP transactions will be provided. The primary use of the Registry Administration Tool is for performing administrative or customer support tasks. 
The main features of the EPP implementation are: 
 Standards Compliance: The EPP XML interface is compliant to the EPP RFCs. As future EPP RFCs are published or existing RFCs are updated, Neustar makes changes to the implementation keeping in mind of any backward compatibility issues.
 Scalability: The system is deployed keeping in mind that it may be required to grow and shrink the footprint of the Registry system for a particular TLD. 
 Fault-tolerance: The EPP servers are deployed in two geographically separate data centers to provide for quick failover capability in case of a major outage in a particular data center. The EPP servers adhere to strict availability requirements defined in the SLAs.
 Configurability: The EPP extensions are built in a way that they can be easily configured to turn on or off for a particular TLD.
 Extensibility: The software is built ground up using object oriented design. This allows for easy extensibility of the software without risking the possibility of the change rippling through the whole application. 
 Auditable: The system stores detailed information about EPP transactions from provisioning to DNS and WHOIS publishing. In case of a dispute regarding a name registration, the Registry can provide comprehensive audit information on EPP transactions.
 Security: The system provides IP address based access control, client credential-based authorization test, digital certificate exchange, and connection limiting to the protocol layer. 
25.3 Compliance with RFCs and Specifications
The registry-registrar model is described and embodied in a number of IETF RFCs, ICANN contracts and practices, and registry-registrar agreements. As shown in Table 25-1, EPP is defined by the core set of RFCs that standardize the interface that registrars use to provision domains with the SRS. As a core component of the SRS architecture, the implementation is fully compliant with all EPP RFCs. 
 

Neustar ensures compliance with all RFCs through a variety of processes and procedures. Members from the engineering and standards teams actively monitor and participate in the development of RFCs that impact the registry services, including those related to EPP. When new RFCs are introduced or existing ones are updated, the team performs a full compliance review of each system impacted by the change. Furthermore, all code releases include a full regression test that includes specific test cases to verify RFC compliance.

Neustar has a long history of providing exceptional service that exceeds all performance specifications. The SRS and EPP interface have been designed to exceed the EPP specifications defined in Specification 10 of the Registry Agreement and profiled in Table 25-2. Evidence of Neustar’s ability to perform at these levels can be found in the .biz monthly progress reports found on the ICANN website.

 
EPP Toolkits
Toolkits, under open source licensing, are freely provided to registrars for interfacing with the SRS. Both Java and C++ toolkits will be provided, along with the accompanying documentation. The Registrar Tool Kit (RTK) is a software development kit (SDK) that supports the development of a registrar software system for registering domain names in the registry using EPP. The SDK consists of software and documentation as described below.
The software consists of working Java and C++ EPP common APIs and samples that implement the EPP core functions and EPP extensions used to communicate between the registry and registrar. The RTK illustrates how XML requests (registration events) can be assembled and forwarded to the registry for processing. The software provides the registrar with the basis for a reference implementation that conforms to the EPP registry-registrar protocol. The software component of the SDK also includes XML schema definition files for all Registry EPP objects and EPP object extensions. The RTK also includes a “dummy” server to aid in the testing of EPP clients.
The accompanying documentation describes the EPP software package hierarchy, the object data model, and the defined objects and methods (including calling parameter lists and expected response behavior). New versions of the RTK are made available from time to time to provide support for additional features as they become available and support for other platforms and languages.
25.4 Proprietary EPP Extensions
The .taipei registry will not include proprietary EPP extensions. Neustar has implemented various EPP extensions for both internal and external use in other TLD registries. These extensions use the standard EPP extension framework described in RFC 5730. Table 25-3 provides a list of extensions developed for other TLDs. Should the .taipei registry require an EPP extension at some point in the future, the extension will be implemented in compliance with all RFC specifications including RFC 3735.
 

The full EPP schema to be used in the .taipei registry is attached in the document titled “EPP Schema.”
25.5 Resourcing Plans
The development and support of EPP is largely the responsibility of the Development⁄Engineering and Quality Assurance teams. As an experience registry operator with a fully developed EPP solution, on-going support is largely limited to periodic updates to the standard and the implementation of TLD specific extensions.
The necessary resources will be pulled from the pool of available resources described in detail in the response to Question 31. The following resources are available from those teams:
Development⁄Engineering – 19 employees
Quality Assurance - 7 employees.
These resources are more than adequate to support any EPP modification needs of the .taipei registry.

26.1 Introduction
Taipei City Government recognizes the importance of an accurate, reliable, and up-to-date WHOIS database to governments, law enforcement, intellectual property holders and the public as a whole and is firmly committed to complying with all of the applicable WHOIS specifications for data objects, bulk access, and lookups as defined in Specifications 4 and 10 to the Registry Agreement. . Taipei City Government’s back-end registry services provider, Neustar, has extensive experience providing ICANN and RFC-compliant WHOIS services for each of the TLDs that it operates both as a Registry Operator for gTLDs, ccTLDs and back-end registry services provider. As one of the first “thick” registry operators in the gTLD space, Neustar’s WHOIS service has been designed from the ground up to display as much information as required by a TLD and respond to a very stringent availability and performance requirement.
Some of the key features of .Taipei City Government’s solution include: 
 Fully compliant with all relevant RFCs including 3912
 Production proven, highly flexible, and scalable with a track record of 100% availability over the past 10 years
 Exceeds current and proposed performance specifications 
 Supports dynamic updates with the capability of doing bulk updates 
 Geographically distributed sites to provide greater stability and performance
 In addition, .Taipei City Government’s thick-WHOIS solution also provides for additional search capabilities and mechanisms to mitigate potential forms of abuse as discussed below. (e.g., IDN, registrant data).
26.2 Software Components
The WHOIS architecture comprises the following components:
 An in-memory database local to each WHOIS node: To provide for the performance needs, the WHOIS data is served from an in-memory database indexed by searchable keys. 
 Redundant servers: To provide for redundancy, the WHOIS updates are propagated to a cluster of WHOIS servers that maintain an independent copy of the database. 
 Attack resistant: To ensure that the WHOIS system cannot be abused using malicious queries or DOS attacks, the WHOIS server is only allowed to query the local database and rate limits on queries based on IPs and IP ranges can be readily applied.
 Accuracy auditor: To ensure the accuracy of the information served by the WHOIS servers, a daily audit is done between the SRS information and the WHOIS responses for the domain names which are updated during the last 24-hour period. Any discrepancies are resolved proactively.
 Modular design: The WHOIS system allows for filtering and translation of data elements between the SRS and the WHOIS database to allow for customizations.
 Scalable architecture: The WHOIS system is scalable and has a very small footprint. Depending on the query volume, the deployment size can grow and shrink quickly.
 Flexible: It is flexible enough to accommodate thin, thick, or modified thick models and can accommodate any future ICANN policy, such as different information display levels based on user categorization.
 SRS master database: The SRS database is the main persistent store of the Registry information. The Update Agent computes what WHOIS updates need to be pushed out. A publish-subscribe mechanism then takes these incremental updates and pushes to all the WHOIS slaves that answer queries.
26.3 Compliance with RFC and Specifications 4 and 10
Neustar has been running thick-WHOIS Services for over 10+ years in full compliance with RFC 3912 and with Specifications 4 and 10 of the Registry Agreement.RFC 3912 is a simple text based protocol over TCP that describes the interaction between the server and client on port 43. Neustar built a home-grown solution for this service. It processes millions of WHOIS queries per day.
Table 26-1 describes Neustar’s compliance with Specifications 4 and 10.
 
Neustar ensures compliance with all RFCs through a variety of processes and procedures. Members from the engineering and standards teams actively monitor and participate in the development of RFCs that impact the registry services, including those related to WHOIS. When new RFCs are introduced or existing ones are updated, the team performs a full compliance review of each system impacted by the change. Furthermore, all code releases include a full regression test that includes specific test cases to verify RFC compliance.
26.4 High-level WHOIS System Description
26.4.1 WHOIS Service (port 43)
The WHOIS service is responsible for handling port 43 queries. Our WHOIS is optimized for speed using an in-memory database and master-slave architecture between the SRS and WHOIS slaves.
The WHOIS service also has built-in support for IDN. If the domain name being queried is an IDN, the returned results include the language of the domain name, the domain name’s UTF-8 encoded representation along with the Unicode code page.
26.4.2 Web Page for WHOIS queries
In addition to the WHOIS Service on port 43, Neustar provides a web based WHOIS application (www.whois.taipei). It is an intuitive and easy to use application for the general public to use. WHOIS web application provides all of the features available in the port 43 WHOIS. This includes full and partial search on:
 Domain names
 Nameservers
 Registrant, Technical and Administrative Contacts
 Registrars
It also provides features not available on the port 43 service. These include:
 Redemption Grace Period calculation: Based on the registry’s policy, domains in pending Delete can be restorable or scheduled for release depending on the date⁄time the domain went into pending Delete. For these domains, the web based WHOIS displays “Restorable” or “Scheduled for Release” to clearly show this additional status to the user.
 Extensive support for international domain names (IDN)
 Ability to perform WHOIS lookups on the actual Unicode IDN
 Display of the actual Unicode IDN in addition to the ACE-encoded name
 A Unicode to Punycode and Punycode to Unicode translator
 An extensive FAQ
 A list of upcoming domain deletions
26.5 IT and Infrastructure Resources
As described above the WHOIS architecture uses a workflow that decouples the update process from the SRS. This ensures SRS performance is not adversely affected by the load requirements of dynamic updates. It is also decoupled from the WHOIS lookup agent to ensure the WHOIS service is always available and performing well for users. Each of Neustar’s geographically diverse WHOIS sites use:
 Firewalls, to protect this sensitive data 
 Dedicated servers for MQ Series, to ensure guaranteed delivery of WHOIS updates 
 Packetshaper for source IP address-based bandwidth limiting 
 Load balancers to distribute query load 
 Multiple WHOIS servers for maximizing the performance of WHOIS service.
The WHOIS service uses HP BL 460C servers, each with 2 X Quad Core CPU and a 64GB of RAM. The existing infrastructure has 6 servers, but is designed to be easily scaled with additional servers should it be needed.
Figure 26-1 depicts the different components of the WHOIS architecture.

 
26.6 Interconnectivity with Other Registry System
As described in Question 24 about the SRS and further in response to Question 31, “Technical Overview”, when an update is made by a registrar that impacts WHOIS data, a trigger is sent to the WHOIS system by the external notifier layer. The update agent processes these updates, transforms the data if necessary and then uses messaging oriented middleware to publish all updates to each WHOIS slave. The local update agent accepts the update and applies it to the local in-memory database. A separate auditor compares the data in WHOIS and the SRS daily and monthly to ensure accuracy of the published data.
26.7 Frequency of Synchronization between Servers
Updates from the SRS, through the external notifiers, to the constellation of independent WHOIS slaves happens in real-time via an asynchronous publish⁄subscribe messaging architecture. The updates are guaranteed to be updated in each slave within the required SLA of 95% ≤ 60 minutes. Please note that Neustar’s current architecture is built towards the stricter SLAs (95% ≤ 15 minutes) of .BIZ. The vast majority of updates tend to happen within 2-3 minutes.
26.8 Provision for Searchable WHOIS Capabilities
Neustar will create a new web-based service to address the new search features based on requirements specified in Specification 4 Section 1.8. The application will enable users to search the WHOIS directory using any one or more of the following fields: 
 Domain name
 Registrar ID
 Contacts and registrant’s name
 Contact and registrant’s postal address, including all the sub-fields described in EPP (e.g., street, city, state or province, etc.)
 Name server name and name server IP address
 The system will also allow search using non-Latin character sets which are compliant with IDNA specification.
The user will choose one or more search criteria, combine them by Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) and provide partial or exact match regular expressions for each of the criterion name-value pairs. The domain names matching the search criteria will be returned to the user.
Figure 26-2 shows an architectural depiction of the new service. 

 


To mitigate the risk of this powerful search service being abused by unscrupulous data miners, a layer of security will be built around the query engine which will allow the registry to identify rogue activities and then take appropriate measures. Potential abuses include, but are not limited to:
• Data Mining
• Unauthorized Access
• Excessive Querying
• Denial of Service Attacks
To mitigate the abuses noted above, Neustar will implement any or all of these mechanisms as appropriate:
 Username-password based authentication 
 Certificate based authentication
 Data encryption
 CAPTCHA mechanism to prevent robot invocation of Web query
 Fee-based advanced query capabilities for premium customers.
The searchable WHOIS application will adhere to all privacy laws and policies of the .taipei registry.
26.9 Resourcing Plans 
As with the SRS, the development, customization, and on-going support of the WHOIS service is the responsibility of a combination of technical and operational teams. The primary groups responsible for managing the service include:
 Development⁄Engineering – 19 employees
 Database Administration – 10 employees
 Systems Administration – 24 employees
 Network Engineering – 5 employees 
Additionally, if customization or modifications are required, the Product Management and Quality Assurance teams will also be involved. Finally, the Network Operations and Information Security play an important role in ensuring the systems involved are operating securely and reliably. The necessary resources will be pulled from the pool of available resources described in detail in the response to Question 31. Neustar’s WHOIS implementation is very mature, and has been in production for over 10 years. As such, very little new development will be required to support the implementation of the .taipei registry. The resources are more than adequate to support the WHOIS needs of all the TLDs operated by Neustar, including the .taipei registry. 

Introduction
.taipei will follow the lifecycle and business rules found in the majority of gTLDs today. Our back-end operator, Neustar, has over ten years of experience managing numerous TLDs that utilize standard and unique business rules and lifecycles. This section describes the business rules, registration states, and the overall domain lifecycle that will be use for .taipei.
Domain Lifecycle - Description
The registry will use the EPP 1.0 standard for provisioning domain names, contacts and hosts. Each domain record is comprised of three registry object types: domain, contacts, and hosts 
Domains, contacts and hosts may be assigned various EPP defined statuses indicating either a particular state or restriction placed on the object. Some statuses may be applied by the Registrar; other statuses may only be applied by the Registry. Statuses are an integral part of the domain lifecycle and serve the dual purpose of indicating the particular state of the domain and indicating any restrictions placed on the domain. The EPP standard defines 17 statuses, however only 14 of these statuses will be used in the .taipei registry per the defined .taipei business rules.
The following is a brief description of each of the statuses. Server statuses may only be applied by the Registry, and client statuses may be applied by the Registrar.
 OK – Default status applied by the Registry.
 Inactive – Default status applied by the Registry if the domain has less than 2 nameservers.
 PendingCreate – Status applied by the Registry upon processing a successful Create command, and indicates further action is pending. This status will not be used in the .taipei registry.
 PendingTransfer – Status applied by the Registry upon processing a successful Transfer request command, and indicates further action is pending.
 PendingDelete – Status applied by the Registry upon processing a successful Delete command that does not result in the immediate deletion of the domain, and indicates further action is pending.
 PendingRenew – Status applied by the Registry upon processing a successful Renew command that does not result in the immediate renewal of the domain, and indicates further action is pending. This status will not be used in the .taipei registry.
 PendingUpdate – Status applied by the Registry if an additional action is expected to complete the update, and indicates further action is pending. This status will not be used in the .taipei registry.
 Hold – Removes the domain from the DNS zone.
 UpdateProhibited – Prevents the object from being modified by an Update command.
 TransferProhibited – Prevents the object from being transferred to another Registrar by the Transfer command.
 RenewProhibited – Prevents a domain from being renewed by a Renew command.
 DeleteProhibited – Prevents the object from being deleted by a Delete command. 
The lifecycle of a domain begins with the registration of the domain. All registrations must follow the EPP standard, as well as the specific business rules described in the response to Question 18 above. Upon registration a domain will either be in an active or inactive state. Domains in an active state are delegated and have their delegation information published to the zone. Inactive domains either have no delegation information or their delegation information in not published in the zone. Following the initial registration of a domain, one of five actions may occur during its lifecycle:
 Domain may be updated
 Domain may be deleted, either within or after the add-grace period
 Domain may be renewed at anytime during the term
 Domain may be auto-renewed by the Registry
 Domain may be transferred to another registrar. 
Each of these actions may result in a change in domain state. This is described in more detail in the following section. Every domain must eventually be renewed, auto-renewed, transferred, or deleted. A registrar may apply EPP statuses described above to prevent specific actions such as updates, renewals, transfers, or deletions.
27.1.1 Registration States
Domain Lifecycle – Registration States
As described above the .taipei registry will implement a standard domain lifecycle found in most gTLD registries today. There are five possible domain states:
 Active 
 Inactive
 Locked
 Pending Transfer
 Pending Delete.
All domains are always in either an Active or Inactive state, and throughout the course of the lifecycle may also be in a Locked, Pending Transfer, and Pending Delete state. Specific conditions such as applied EPP policies and registry business rules will determine whether a domain can be transitioned between states. Additionally, within each state, domains may be subject to various timed events such as grace periods, and notification periods. 
Active State
The active state is the normal state of a domain and indicates that delegation data has been provided and the delegation information is published in the zone. A domain in an Active state may also be in the Locked or Pending Transfer states.
Inactive State
The Inactive state indicates that a domain has not been delegated or that the delegation data has not been published to the zone. A domain in an Inactive state may also be in the Locked or Pending Transfer states. By default all domain in the Pending Delete state are also in the Inactive state.
Locked State
The Locked state indicates that certain specified EPP transactions may not be performed to the domain. A domain is considered to be in a Locked state if at least one restriction has been placed on the domain; however up to eight restrictions may be applied simultaneously. Domains in the Locked state will also be in the Active or Inactive, and under certain conditions may also be in the Pending Transfer or Pending Delete states.
Pending Transfer State
The Pending Transfer state indicates a condition in which there has been a request to transfer the domain from one registrar to another. The domain is placed in the Pending Transfer state for a period of time to allow the current (losing) registrar to approve (ack) or reject (nack) the transfer request. Registrars may only nack requests for reasons specified in the Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy.
Pending Delete State
The Pending Delete State occurs when a Delete command has been sent to the Registry after the first 5 days (120 hours) of registration. The Pending Delete period is 35-days during which the first 30-days the name enters the Redemption Grace Period (RGP) and the last 5-days guarantee that the domain will be purged from the Registry Database and available to public pool for registration on a first come, first serve basis.
27.1.2 Typical Registration Lifecycle Activities
Domain Creation Process
The creation (registration) of domain names is the fundamental registry operation. All other operations are designed to support or compliment a domain creation. The following steps occur when a domain is created. 
1. Contact objects are created in the SRS database. The same contact object may be used for each contact type, or they may all be different. If the contacts already exist in the database this step may be skipped.
2. Nameservers are created in the SRS database. Nameservers are not required to complete the registration process; however any domain with less than 2 name servers will not be resolvable.
3. The domain is created using the each of the objects created in the previous steps. In addition, the term and any client statuses may be assigned at the time of creation.
The actual number of EPP transactions needed to complete the registration of a domain name can be as few as one and as many as 40. The latter assumes seven distinct contacts and 13 nameservers, with Check and Create commands submitted for each object. 
Update Process
Registry objects may be updated (modified) using the EPP Modify operation. The Update transaction updates the attributes of the object. 
For example, the Update operation on a domain name will only allow the following attributes to be updated:
 Domain statuses
 Registrant ID
 Administrative Contact ID
 Billing Contact ID
 Technical Contact ID
 Nameservers
 AuthInfo
 Additional Registrar provided fields.

The Update operation will not modify the details of the contacts. Rather it may be used to associate a different contact object (using the Contact ID) to the domain name. To update the details of the contact object the Update transaction must be applied to the contact itself. For example, if an existing registrant wished to update the postal address, the Registrar would use the Update command to modify the contact object, and not the domain object. 
Renew Process 
The term of a domain may be extended using the EPP Renew operation. ICANN policy general establishes the maximum term of a domain name to be 10 years, and Neustar recommends not deviating from this policy. A domain may be renewed⁄extended at any point time, even immediately following the initial registration. The only stipulation is that the overall term of the domain name may not exceed 10 years. If a Renew operation is performed with a term value will extend the domain beyond the 10 year limit, the Registry will reject the transaction entirely.
Transfer Process
The EPP Transfer command is used for several domain transfer related operations: 
 Initiate a domain transfer
 Cancel a domain transfer
 Approve a domain transfer
 Reject a domain transfer.
To transfer a domain from one Registrar to another the following process is followed:
1. The gaining (new) Registrar submits a Transfer command, which includes the AuthInfo code of the domain name.
2. If the AuthInfo code is valid and the domain is not in a status that does not allow transfers the domain is placed into pendingTransfer status
3. A poll message notifying the losing Registrar of the pending transfer is sent to the Registrar’s message queue
4. The domain remains in pendingTransfer status for up to 120 hours, or until the losing (current) Registrar Acks (approves) or Nack (rejects) the transfer request
5. If the losing Registrar has not Acked or Nacked the transfer request within the 120 hour timeframe, the Registry auto-approves the transfer
6. The requesting Registrar may cancel the original request up until the transfer has been completed.
A transfer adds an additional year to the term of the domain. In the event that a transfer will cause the domain to exceed the 10 year maximum term, the Registry will add a partial term up to the 10 year limit. Unlike with the Renew operation, the Registry will not reject a transfer operation.
Deletion Process
A domain may be deleted from the SRS using the EPP Delete operation. The Delete operation will result in either the domain being immediately removed from the database or the domain being placed in pendingDelete status. The outcome is dependent on when the domain is deleted. If the domain is deleted within the first five days (120 hours) of registration, the domain is immediately removed from the database. A deletion at any other time will result in the domain being placed in pendingDelete status and entering the Redemption Grace Period (RGP). Additionally, domains that are deleted within five days (120) hours of any billable (add, renew, transfer) transaction may be deleted for credit.
27.1.3 Applicable Time Elements
The following section explains the time elements that are involved. 
Grace Periods
There are six grace periods:
 Add-Delete Grace Period (AGP)
 Renew-Delete Grace Period
 Transfer-Delete Grace Period
 Auto-Renew-Delete Grace Period
 Auto-Renew Grace Period
 Redemption Grace Period (RGP). 
The first four grace periods listed above are designed to provide the Registrar with the ability to cancel a revenue transaction (add, renew, or transfer) within a certain period of time and receive a credit for the original transaction.
The following describes each of these grace periods in detail.
Add-Delete Grace Period 
The APG is associated with the date the Domain was registered. Domains may be deleted for credit during the initial 120 hours of a registration, and the Registrar will receive a billing credit for the original registration. If the domain is deleted during the Add Grace Period, the domain is dropped from the database immediately and a credit is applied to the Registrar’s billing account. 
Renew-Delete Grace Period 
The Renew-Delete Grace Period is associated with the date the Domain was renewed. Domains may be deleted for credit during the 120 hours after a renewal. The grace period is intended to allow Registrars to correct domains that were mistakenly renewed. It should be noted that domains that are deleted during the renew grace period will be placed into pendingDelete and will enter the RGP (see below). 
Transfer-Delete Grace Period 
The Transfer-Delete Grace Period is associated with the date the Domain was transferred to another Registrar. Domains may be deleted for credit during the 120 hours after a transfer. It should be noted that domains that are deleted during the renew grace period will be placed into pendingDelete and will enter the RGP. A deletion of domain after a transfer is not the method used to correct a transfer mistake. Domains that have been erroneously transferred or hijacked by another party can be transferred back to the original registrar through various means including contacting the Registry.
Auto-Renew-Delete Grace Period 
The Auto-Renew-Delete Grace Period is associated with the date the Domain was auto-renewed. Domains may be deleted for credit during the 120 hours after an auto-renewal. The grace period is intended to allow Registrars to correct domains that were mistakenly auto-renewed. It should be noted that domains that are deleted during the auto-renew delete grace period will be placed into pendingDelete and will enter the RGP. 
Auto-Renew Grace Period 
The Auto-Renew Grace Period is a special grace period intended to provide registrants with an extra amount of time, beyond the expiration date, to renew their domain name. The grace period lasts for 45 days from the expiration date of the domain name. Registrars are not required to provide registrants with the full 45 days of the period.
Redemption Grace Period 
The RGP is a special grace period that enables Registrars to restore domains that have been inadvertently deleted but are still in pendingDelete status within the Redemption Grace Period. All domains enter the RGP except those deleted during the AGP. 
The RGP period is 30 days, during which time the domain may be restored using the EPP RenewDomain command as described below. Following the 30day RGP period the domain will remain in pendingDelete status for an additional five days, during which time the domain may NOT be restored. The domain is released from the SRS, at the end of the 5 day non-restore period. A restore fee applies and is detailed in the Billing Section. A renewal fee will be automatically applied for any domain past expiration.
Neustar has created a unique restoration process that uses the EPP Renew transaction to restore the domain and fulfill all the reporting obligations required under ICANN policy. The following describes the restoration process.
27.2 State Diagram
Figure 27-1 provides a description of the registration lifecycle. 


 
The different states of the lifecycle are active, inactive, locked, pending transfer, and pending delete. Please refer to section 27.1.1 for detail description of each of these states. The lines between the states represent triggers that transition a domain from one state to another. 

The details of each trigger are described below:
 Create: Registry receives a create domain EPP command.
 WithNS: The domain has met the minimum number of nameservers required by registry policy in order to be published in the DNS zone.
 WithOutNS: The domain has not met the minimum number of nameservers required by registry policy. The domain will not be in the DNS zone.
 Remove Nameservers: Domainʹs nameserver(s) is removed as part of an update domain EPP command. The total nameserver is below the minimum number of nameservers required by registry policy in order to be published in the DNS zone.
 Add Nameservers: Nameserver(s) has been added to domain as part of an update domain EPP command. The total number of nameservers has met the minimum number of nameservers required by registry policy in order to be published in the DNS zone.
 Delete: Registry receives a delete domain EPP command.
 DeleteAfterGrace: Domain deletion does not fall within the add grace period.
 DeleteWithinAddGrace: Domain deletion falls within add grace period.
 Restore: Domain is restored. Domain goes back to its original state prior to the delete command.
 Transfer: Transfer request EPP command is received.
 Transfer Approve⁄Cancel⁄Reject: Transfer requested is approved or cancel or rejected.
 TransferProhibited: The domain is in clientTransferProhibited and⁄or serverTranferProhibited status. This will cause the transfer request to fail. The domain goes back to its original state.
 DeleteProhibited: The domain is in clientDeleteProhibited and⁄or serverDeleteProhibited status. This will cause the delete command to fail. The domain goes back to its original state.
Note: the locked state is not represented as a distinct state on the diagram as a domain may be in a locked state in combination with any of the other states: inactive, active, pending transfer, or pending delete.
27.2.1 EPP RFC Consistency
As described above, the domain lifecycle is determined by ICANN policy and the EPP RFCs. Neustar has been operating ICANN TLDs for the past 10 years consistent and compliant with all the ICANN policies and related EPP RFCs. 
27.3 Resources
The registration lifecycle and associated business rules are largely determined by policy and business requirements; as such the Product Management and Policy teams will play a critical role in working Applicant to determine the precise rules that meet the requirements of the TLD. Implementation of the lifecycle rules will be the responsibility of Development⁄Engineering team, with testing performed by the Quality Assurance team. Neustar’s SRS implementation is very flexible and configurable, and in many case development is not required to support business rule changes. 
The .taipei registry will be using standard lifecycle rules, and as such no customization is anticipated. However should modifications be required in the future, the necessary resources will be pulled from the pool of available resources described in detail in the response to Question 31. The following resources are available from those teams:
Development⁄Engineering – 19 employees
Registry Product Management – 4 employees
These resources are more than adequate to support the development needs of all the TLDs operated by Neustar, including the .taipei registry.

Strong abuse prevention of a New gTLD is an important benefit to the internet community. .taipei registry and its registry operator and back-end registry services provider, Neustar, agree that a registry must not only aim for the highest standards of technical and operational competence, but also needs to act as a steward of the space on behalf of the Internet community and ICANN in promoting the public interest. Neustar brings extensive experience establishing and implementing registration policies. This experience will be leveraged to help .taipei registry combat abusive and malicious domain activity within the New gTLD space.
One of those public interest functions for a responsible domain name registry includes working towards the eradication of abusive domain name registrations, including, but not limited to, those resulting from:
 Illegal or fraudulent actions 
 Spam
 Phishing
 Pharming 
 Distribution of malware 
 Fast flux hosting 
 Botnets 
 Distribution of child pornography 
 Online sale or distribution of illegal pharmaceuticals
More specifically, although traditionally botnets have used Internet Relay Chat (IRC) servers to control registry and the compromised PCs, or bots, for DDoS attacks and the theft of personal information, an increasingly popular technique, known as fast-flux DNS, allows botnets to use a multitude of servers to hide a key host or to create a highly-available control network. This ability to shift the attacker’s infrastructure over a multitude of servers in various countries creates an obstacle for law enforcement and security researchers to mitigate the effects of these botnets. But a point of weakness in this scheme is its dependence on DNS for its translation services. By taking an active role in researching and monitoring these sorts of botnets, Applicant’s partner, Neustar, has developed the ability to efficiently work with various law enforcement and security communities to begin a new phase of mitigation of these types of threats.
Policies and Procedures to Minimize Abusive Registrations
A Registry must have the policies, resources, personnel, and expertise in place to combat such abusive DNS practices. As .taipei registry provider, Neustar is at the forefront of the prevention of such abusive practices and is one of the few registry operators to have actually developed and implemented an active “domain takedown” policy. We also believe that a strong program is essential given that registrants have a reasonable expectation that they are in control of the data associated with their domains, especially its presence in the DNS zone. Because domain names are sometimes used as a mechanism to enable various illegitimate activities on the Internet often the best preventative measure to thwart these attacks is to remove the names completely from the DNS before they can impart harm, not only to the domain name registrant, but also to millions of unsuspecting Internet users.
Removing the domain name from the zone has the effect of shutting down all activity associated with the domain name, including the use of all websites and e-mails. The use of this technique should not be entered into lightly. .taipei registry has an extensive, defined, and documented process for taking the necessary action of removing a domain from the zone when its presence in the zone poses a threat to the security and stability of the infrastructure of the Internet or the registry. 
Abuse Point of Contact 
As required by the Registry Agreement, .taipei registry will establish and publish on its website a single abuse point of contact responsible for addressing inquiries from law enforcement and the public related to malicious and abusive conduct. .taipei registry will also provide such information to ICANN prior to the delegation of any domain names in the TLD. This information shall consist of, at a minimum, a valid e-mail address dedicated solely to the handling of malicious conduct complaints, and a telephone number and mailing address for the primary contact. We will ensure that this information will be kept accurate and up to date and will be provided to ICANN if and when changes are made. In addition, with respect to inquiries from ICANN-Accredited registrars, our registry services provider, Neustar, shall have an additional point of contact, as it does today, handling requests by registrars related to abusive domain name practices. 
28.2 Policies Regarding Abuse Complaints
One of the key policies each New gTLD registry will need to have is an Acceptable Use Policy that clearly delineates the types of activities that constitute “abuse” and the repercussions associated with an abusive domain name registration. In addition, the policy will be incorporated into the applicable Registry-Registrar Agreement and reserve the right for the registry to take the appropriate actions based on the type of abuse. This will include locking down the domain name preventing any changes to the contact and nameserver information associated with the domain name, placing the domain name “on hold” rendering the domain name non-resolvable, transferring to the domain name to another registrar, and⁄or in cases in which the domain name is associated with an existing law enforcement investigation, substituting name servers to collect information about the DNS queries to assist the investigation. 
.taipei registry will adopt an Acceptable Use Policy that clearly defines the types of activities that will not be permitted in the TLD and reserves the right of the Applicant to lock, cancel, transfer or otherwise suspend or take down domain names violating the Acceptable Use Policy and allow the Registry where and when appropriate to share information with law enforcement. Each ICANN-Accredited Registrar must agree to pass through the Acceptable Use Policy to its Resellers (if applicable) and ultimately to the TLD registrants. Below is the Registry’s initial Acceptable Use Policy that we will use in connection with .taipei registry.
.taipei registry Acceptable Use Policy
This Acceptable Use Policy gives the Registry the ability to quickly lock, cancel, transfer or take ownership of any .taipei registry domain name, either temporarily or permanently, if the domain name is being used in a manner that appears to threaten the stability, integrity or security of the Registry, or any of its registrar partners-and⁄or that may put the safety and security of any registrant or user at risk. The process also allows the Registry to take preventive measures to avoid any such criminal or security threats.
The Acceptable Use Policy may be triggered through a variety of channels, including, among other things, private complaint, public alert, government or enforcement agency outreach, and the on-going monitoring by the Registry or its partners. In all cases, the Registry or its designees will alert Registry’s registrar partners about any identified threats, and will work closely with them to bring offending sites into compliance.
The following are some (but not all) activities that may be subject to rapid domain compliance:
 Phishing: the attempt to acquire personally identifiable information by masquerading as a website other than .taipei registry own.
 Pharming: the redirection of Internet users to websites other than those the user intends to visit, usually through unauthorized changes to the Hosts file on a victim’s computer or DNS records in DNS servers.
 Dissemination of Malware: the intentional creation and distribution of ʺmaliciousʺ software designed to infiltrate a computer system without the owner’s consent, including, without limitation, computer viruses, worms, key loggers, and Trojans.
 Fast Flux Hosting: a technique used to shelter Phishing, Pharming and Malware sites and networks from detection and to frustrate methods employed to defend against such practices, whereby the IP address associated with fraudulent websites are changed rapidly so as to make the true location of the sites difficult to find.
 Botnetting: the development and use of a command, agent, motor, service, or software which is implemented: (1) to remotely control the computer or computer system of an Internet user without their knowledge or consent, (2) to generate direct denial of service (DDOS) attacks.
 Malicious Hacking: the attempt to gain unauthorized access (or exceed the level of authorized access) to a computer, information system, user account or profile, database, or security system.
 Child Pornography: the storage, publication, display and⁄or dissemination of pornographic materials depicting individuals under the age of majority in the relevant jurisdiction.
 Illegal Profit-Oriented Behaviors: any act with profit of malicious intention.
.taipei Registry reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to take any administrative and operational actions necessary, including the use of computer forensics and information security technological services, among other things, in order to implement the Acceptable Use Policy. In addition, the Registry reserves the right to deny, cancel or transfer any registration or transaction, or place any domain name(s) on registry lock, hold or similar status, that it deems necessary, in its discretion; (1) to protect the integrity and stability of the registry; (2) to comply with any applicable laws, government rules or requirements, requests of law enforcement, or any dispute resolution process; (3) to avoid any liability, civil or criminal, on the part of Registry as well as its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers, directors, and employees; (4) per the terms of the registration agreement or (5) to correct mistakes made by the Registry or any Registrar in connection with a domain name registration. Registry also reserves the right to place upon registry lock, hold or similar status a domain name during resolution of a dispute. 
Monitoring for Malicious Activity
If any malicious activity happen, “domain takedown” policy will be implemented. .taipei registry targets domain names which are verified to be abusive and removes them within 12 hours.
.taipei registry active prevention policies stem from the notion that registrants in the TLD have a reasonable expectation that they are in control of the data associated with their domains, especially its presence in the DNS zone. Because domain names are sometimes used as a mechanism to enable various illegitimate activities on the internet, including malware, bot command and control, pharming, and phishing, the best preventative measure to thwart these attacks is often to remove the names completely from the DNS before they can impart harm, not only to the domain name registrant, but also to millions of unsuspecting internet users.
Rapid Takedown Process
Since implementing the program, there are developed two basic variations of the process. The more common process variation is a light-weight process that is triggered by “typical” notices. The less-common variation is the full process that is triggered by unusual notices. These notices tend to involve the need for accelerated action by .taipei registry in the event that a complaint is received by registry which alleges that a domain name is being used to threaten the stability and security of the TLD, or is part of a real-time investigation by law enforcement or security researchers. These processes are described below:
Lightweight Process
Once a complaint is received from a trusted source, third-party, or detected by .taipei registry, information about the abusive practice is forwarded to an internal mail distribution list that includes members of processing team.
Once the complaint has been reviewed and the alleged abusive domain name activity is verified to the best of the ability of .taipei registry, it should investigate the activity within 12 hours and either take down the domain name by placing the domain name on hold or by deleting the domain name in its entirety or providing a compelling argument to the registry to keep the name in the zone.
If the registrar has not taken the requested action after the 12hours (i.e., is unresponsive to the request or refuses to take action), .taipei registry places the domain on “ServerHold”. Although this action removes the domain name from the TLD zone, the domain name record still appears in the TLD WHOIS database so that the name and entities can be investigated by law enforcement should they desire to get involved.
Full Process
In the event when receive a complaint which claims that a domain name is being used to threaten the stability and security of the TLD or is a part of a real-time investigation by law enforcement or security researchers, .taipei registry follows a slightly different course of action.
Upon initiation of this process, members of .taipei registry are paged and a teleconference bridge is immediately opened up .taipei registry to assess whether the activity warrants immediate action. If determines the incident is not an immediate threat to the security and the stability of critical internet infrastructure, it will refers the incident to the Lightweight process set forth above. If no abusive practice is discovered, the incident is closed. 
However, if determines there is a reasonable likelihood that the incident warrants immediate action as described above, a determination is made to immediately remove the domain from the zone. 
28.3 Measures for Removal of Orphan Glue Records
As the Security and Stability Advisory Committee of ICANN (SSAC) rightly acknowledges, although orphaned glue records may be used for abusive or malicious purposes, the “dominant use of orphaned glue supports the correct and ordinary operation of the DNS.” See http:⁄⁄www.icann.org⁄en⁄committees⁄security⁄sac048.pdf. 
While orphan glue often support correct and ordinary operation of the DNS, we understand that such glue records can be used maliciously to point to name servers that host domains used in illegal phishing, bot-nets, malware, and other abusive behaviors. Problems occur when the parent domain of the glue record is deleted but its children glue records still remain in DNS. Therefore, when the Registry has written evidence of actual abuse of orphaned glue, the Registry will take action to remove those records from the zone to mitigate such malicious conduct. 
Neustar runs a daily audit of entries in its DNS systems and compares those with its provisioning system. This serves as an umbrella protection to make sure that items in the DNS zone are valid. Any DNS record that shows up in the DNS zone but not in the provisioning system will be flagged for investigation and removed if necessary. This daily DNS audit serves to not only prevent orphaned hosts but also other records that should not be in the zone. 
In addition, if either .taipei registry or Neustar become aware of actual abuse on orphaned glue after receiving written notification by a third party through its Abuse Contact or through its customer support, such glue records will be removed from the zone. 
28.4 Measures to Promote WHOIS Accuracy 
.taipei registry acknowledges that ICANN has developed a number of mechanisms over the past decades that are intended to address the issue of inaccurate WHOIS information. Such measures alone have not proven to be sufficient and .taipei registry will offer a mechanism whereby third parties can submit complaints directly to the Applicant (as opposed to ICANN or the sponsoring Registrar) about inaccurate or incomplete WHOIS data, and shall be required to address those complaints with their registrants. the process is as below：
1. When .taipei registry or any of its registrar partners receive a domain name compliant by third-party, a mail will send to registrant, inform the domain’s WHOIS information has been complained by others.
2. Registrant need to update its WHOIS data within a period and then .taipei registry or any of its registrar partners will examine the WHOIS data to check whether the information is correct.
3. If registrant failed to take any action or the WHOIS data is still inaccuracy. Domain name will probably be suspend or deleted.
In addition, .taipei registry shall be on its own initiative; perform a manual review of a random sampling of .taipei domain names to test the accuracy of the WHOIS information. Although this will not include verifying the actual information in the WHOIS record, but will be examining the WHOIS data for prima facie evidence of inaccuracies. In the event that such evidence exists, it shall be process follow the steps above, and shall be required to address those complaints with their registrants. 
.taipei registry will include a thick WHOIS database as required in Specification 4 of the Registry agreement. A thick WHOIS provides numerous advantages including a centralized location of registrant information, the ability to more easily manage and control the accuracy of data, and a consistent user experience. 
28.4.1Authentication of registrant information
No Registrant identification will be required for applications for registration of names under the .taipei gTLD. Applicants with or without a valid Taipei citizen or business ID number are all welcome to apply for a name under the .taipei gTLD. In order to promote the city name, that give its public image by providing services to businesses and citizens on an upgraded level, boost city tourism, enhance visitor services, all applicants must provide accurate personal or company informations, including e-mail address,telephone number…etc.Registrars should check the correction of all the datas, and .taipei registry will proceed verification process of registrant who want to apply for .taipei.
E-MAIL confirmation process：
.taipei registry will send a conformation e-mail to registrant.
Registrant should check the WHOIS data and confirm all the information is correct. After examination, registrant has to click the link in this mail to identity verification. The application will be successful if all the processes above have been completed.
 28.4.2 Taipei City Government Will Monitor Registration Data
.taipei registry will regularly monitor the registration data for accuracy and completeness, employing authentication methods, and establishing policies and procedures to address domain names with inaccurate or incomplete WHOIS data.
Registrant should confirm the information is correct and need to provide accurate and reliable contact detail. 
When data changed, registrant should update it immediately.
Domain update process
.taipei registry provide multi-factor authentication to ensure proper access to domain functions.
When a domain name is proceeding any update, such as renewal, transfer, deletion action, it requires multi-factor authentication. After update domain’s status, the system will send a confirmation e-mail, and registrant needs to click the link in this mail to identity verification to complete the process. 
28.5Resourcing Plans
Responsibility for abuse mitigation rests with a variety of functional groups. The Abuse Monitoring team is primarily responsible for providing analysis and conducting investigations of reports of abuse. The customer service team also plays an important role in assisting with the investigations and responding customers, and notifying registrars of abusive domains. Finally, the Policy⁄Legal team is responsible for developing the relevant policies and procedures. 
The necessary resources will be pulled from the pool of available resources described in detail in the response to Question 31. The following resources are available from those teams:
Customer Support – 12 employees
Policy⁄Legal – 2 employees
The resources are more than adequate to support the abuse mitigation procedures of .taipei registry. 

.taipei registry is firmly committed to the protection of Intellectual Property rights and to implement the mandatory rights protection mechanisms contained in the Applicant Guidebook and detailed in Specification 7 of the Registry Agreement. .taipei registry recognizes that although the New gTLD program includes significant protections beyond those that were mandatory for a number of the current TLDs, a key motivator for .taipei registry’s selection of Neustar as its registry services provider is Neustar’s experience in successfully launching a number of TLDs with diverse rights protection mechanisms, including many the ones required in the Applicant Guidebook. More specifically, .taipei registry will implement the following rights protection mechanisms in accordance with the Applicant Guidebook as further described below:
• Trademark Clearinghouse: a one-stop shop so that trademark holders can protect their trademarks with a single registration.
• Sunrise and Trademark Claims processes for the .taipei.
• Implementation of the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy to address domain names that have been registered and used in bad faith in the .taipei.
• Uniform Rapid Suspension, a quicker, more efficient and cheaper alternative to the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy to deal with clear cut cases of cyber squatting.
• Charter Eligibility Dispute Resolution Policy connected with disputes over the registration and use of domain name.
• Implementation of a Thick WHOIS making it easier for rights holders to identify and locate infringing parties
29.1.1 Trademark Clearinghouse Including Sunrise and Trademark Claims
The first mandatory rights protection mechanism (“RPM”) required to be implemented New gTLD is support for, and interact with, the trademark clearinghouse. The trademark clearinghouse is intended to serve as a central repository for information to be authenticated, stored and disseminated pertaining to the rights of trademark holders. The data maintained in the clearinghouse will support and facilitate other RPMs, including the mandatory Sunrise Period and Trademark Claims service. Although many of the details of how the trademark clearinghouse will interact with each registry operator and registrars are not completely defined , .taipei registry is actively monitoring the developments of the Implementation Assistance Group (“IAG”) designed to assist ICANN staff in firming up the rules and procedures associated with the policies and technical requirements for the trademark clearinghouse. In addition, .taipei registry’s back-end registry services provider is actively participating in the IAG to ensure that the protections afforded by the clearinghouse and associated RPMs are feasible and implementable.
.taipei registry service provider, Neustar, has already implemented Sunrise and⁄or Trademark Claims programs for numerous TLDs including .biz, .us, .travel, .tel and .co and will implement the both of these services on behalf of .taipei registry. 
29.1.2 Neustar’s Experience in Implementing Sunrise and Trademark Claims Processes
In early 2002, Neustar became the first registry operator to launch a successful authenticated Sunrise process. This process permitted qualified trademark owners to pre-register their trademarks as domain names in the .us TLD space prior to the opening of the space to the general public. Unlike any other “Sunrise” plans implemented (or proposed before that time), Neustar validated the authenticity of Trademark applications and registrations with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). 
Subsequently, as the back-end registry operator for the .tel gTLD and the .co ccTLD, Neustar launched validated Sunrise programs employing processes. These programs are very similar to those that are to be employed by the Trademark Clearinghouse for New gTLDs. 
Sunrise and .taipei
Like the New gTLD process set forth in the Applicant Guidebook, trademark owners had to have their rights validated by a Clearinghouse provider prior to the registration being accepted by the Registry. The Clearinghouse used a defined process for checking the eligibility of the legal rights claimed as the basis of each Sunrise application using official national trademark databases and submitted documentary evidence. 
Applicants and⁄or their designated agents had the option of interacting directly with the Clearinghouse to ensure their applications were accurate and complete prior to submitting them to the Registry pursuant to an optional “Pre-validation Process”. When the Applicant was pre-validated through the Clearinghouse, each was given an associated approval number that it had to supply the registry. 
When the Applicant was pre-validated through the Clearinghouse, each was given an associated approval number that it had to supply the registry. 
.taipei registry will adopt a protective Sunrise process that allows legitimate trademark and intellectual service mark owners to first establish their registration within the registry. In particular, a Sunrise Period will be facilitated before general first-come-first-serve registration is allowed. During the Sunrise Period, only verifiable trademark and service mark owners may apply for domain name registration that matches their respective intellectual property rights. 
Although the exact process for the Sunrise program and its interaction between the trademark owner, Registry, Registrar, and IP Clearinghouse is not completely defined in the Applicant Guidebook and is dependent on the current RFI issued by ICANN in its selection of a Trademark Clearinghouse provider, Neustar’s expertise in launching multiple Sunrise processes and its established software will implement a smooth and compliant Sunrise process for the New gTLDs.
Trademark Claims Service Experience
With Neustar’s biz TLD launched in 2001, Neustar became the first TLD with a Trademark Claims service. Neustar developed the Trademark Claim Service by enabling companies to stake claims to domain names prior to the commencement of live .biz domain registrations. 
During the Trademark Claim process, Neustar received over 80,000 Trademark Claims from entities around the world. Recognizing that multiple intellectual property owners could have trademark rights in a particular mark, multiple Trademark Claims for the same string were accepted. All applications were logged into a Trademark Claims database managed by Neustar. 
The Trademark Claimants are required to provide different kinds of information about their trademark rights, including the:
 Particular trademark or service mark relied on for the trademark Claim
 Date a trademark application on the mark was filed, if any, on the string of the domain name
 Country where the mark was filed, if applicable
 Registration date, if applicable
 Class or classes of goods and services for which the trademark or service mark was registered
 Name of a contact person with whom to discuss the claimed trademark rights. 
Once all Trademark Claims and domain name applications were collected, Neustar then compared the claims contained within the Trademark Claims database with its database of collected domain name applications (DNAs). In the event of a match between a Trademark Claim and a domain name application, an e-mail message was sent to the domain name applicant notifying the applicant of the existing Trademark Claim. The e-mail also stressed that if the applicant chose to continue the application process and was ultimately selected as the registrant, the applicant would be subject to Neustar’s dispute proceedings if challenged by the Trademark Claimant for that particular domain name. 
The domain name applicant had the option to proceed with the application or cancel the application. Proceeding on an application meant that the applicant wanted to go forward and have the application proceed to registration despite having been notified of an existing Trademark Claim. By choosing to “cancel,” the applicant made a decision in light of an existing Trademark Claim notification to not proceed. 
If the applicant did not respond to the e-mail notification from Neustar, or elected to cancel the application, the application was not processed. This resulted in making the applicant ineligible to register the actual domain name. If the applicant affirmatively elected to continue the application process after being notified of the claimant’s (or claimants’) alleged trademark rights to the desired domain name, Neustar processed the application. 
This process is very similar to the one ultimately adopted by ICANN and incorporated in the latest version of the Applicant Guidebook. Although the collection of Trademark Claims for New gTLDs will be by the Trademark Clearinghouse, many of the aspects of Neustar’s Trademark Claims process in 2001 are similar to those in the Applicant Guidebook. This makes Neustar uniquely qualified to implement the New gTLD Trademark Claims process.
29.1.3 Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) and Charter Eligibility Dispute Resolution Policy(CEDRP)
UDRP
To discourage registration of abusive domain names, .taipei registry will conform to the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). .taipei’s operator and registrants must also agree to be bound by the UDRP for .taipei registration. 
URS
The purpose of the URS is to provide a more cost effective and timely mechanism for brand owners than the UDRP to protect their trademarks and to promote consumer protection on the Internet. 
Unlike the UDRP which requires little involvement of gTLD registries, the URS envisages much more of an active role at the registry-level. For example, rather than requiring the registrar to lock down a domain name subject to a UDRP dispute, it is the registry under the URS that must lock the domain within 24hours of receipt of the complaint from the URS Provider to restrict all changes to the registration data, including transfer and deletion of the domain names. 
In addition, in the event of a determination in favor of the complainant, the registry is required to suspend the domain name. This suspension remains for the balance of the registration period and would not resolve the original website. Rather, the nameservers would be redirected to an informational web page provided by the URS Provider about the URS. 
Additionally, the WHOIS reflects that the domain name will not be able to be transferred, deleted, or modified for the life of the registration. Finally, there is an option for a successful complainant to extend the registration period for one additional year at commercial rates. 
.taipei registry is fully aware of each of these requirements and will have the capability to implement these requirements for New gTLDs. In fact, during the IRT’s development of f the URS, Neustar began examining the implications of the URS on its registry operations and provided the IRT with feedback on whether the recommendations from the IRT would be feasible for registries to implement. 
Although there have been a few changes to the URS since the IRT recommendations, Neustar continued to participate in the development of the URS by providing comments to ICANN, many of which were adopted. As a result, Neustar is committed to supporting the URS for all of the registries that it provides back-end registry services.
CEDRP
CEDRP is incorporated by reference into the Registry-Registrant Agreement. It’s connected with disputes over the registration and use of an internet domain name, registered. This CEDRP describes standards that will be applied to registered names of .taipei on the basis of alleged use inconsistent with the qualifications for registration. This CEDRP will not be applied to Registry-reserved names of .taipei. 
Reserved Domain List
The Registry has reserved certain names from registration under the .taipei gTLD , including, without limitation, the names appearing on the list of ICANN reserved gTLD names, the names and acronyms of countries and territories under ISO 3166-2, geographic names and acronyms under the jurisdiction of Taipei City Government and the names and acronyms of the Taipei City Governmental Branches or Programs reserved by the Registry for its own purposes and for use by third parties.
Implementation of Thick WHOIS
.taipei registry will include a thick WHOIS database as required in Specification 4 of the Registry agreement. A thick WHOIS provides numerous advantages including a centralized location of registrant information, the ability to more easily manage and control the accuracy of data, and a consistent user experience. 
Policies Handling Complaints Regarding Abuse
In addition the Rights Protection mechanisms addressed above, .taipei registry will implement a number of measures to handle complaints regarding the abusive registration of domain names in its TLD as described in .taipei response to Question 28.
Registry Acceptable Use Policy
.taipei Acceptable Use Policy clearly delineates the types of activities that constitute “abuse” and the repercussions associated with an abusive domain name registration. The policy must be incorporated into the applicable Registry-Registrar Agreement and reserve the right for the registry to take the appropriate actions based on the type of abuse. This may include locking down the domain name preventing any changes to the contact and name server information associated with the domain name, placing the domain name “on hold” rendering the domain name non-resolvable, transferring to the domain name to another registrar, and⁄or in cases in which the domain name is associated with an existing law enforcement investigation, substituting name servers to collect information about the DNS queries to assist the investigation. .taipei registry’s Acceptable Use Policy, set forth in our response to Question 28, will include prohibitions on phishing, pharming, dissemination of malware, fast flux hosting, hacking, and child pornography. In addition, the policy will include the right of the registry to take action necessary to deny, cancel, suspend, lock, or transfer any registration in violation of the policy.
Monitoring for Malicious Activity
.taipei registry is committed to ensuring that those domain names associated with abuse or malicious conduct in violation of the Acceptable Use Policy are deal with in a timely and decisive manner. These include taking action against those domain names that are being used to threaten the stability and security of the TLD, or is part of a real-time investigation by law enforcement.
Once a complaint is received from a trusted source, third-party, or detected by .taipei registry, it will use commercially reasonable efforts to verify the information in the complaint. If that information can be verified to the best of the ability of the Registry, the sponsoring registrar will be notified and be given 12 hours to investigate the activity and either take down the domain name by placing the domain name on hold or by deleting the domain name in its entirety or providing a compelling argument to the Registry to keep the name in the zone. If the registrar has not taken the requested action after 12-hour period (i.e., is unresponsive to the request or refuses to take action), the Registry will place the domain on “ServerHold”. Although this action removes the domain name from the TLD zones, the domain name record still appears in enforcement should they desire to get involved.
29.2 Resourcing Plans
The rights protection mechanisms described in the response above involve a wide range of tasks, procedures, and systems. The responsibility for each mechanism varies based on the specific requirements. In general the development of applications such as Sunrise and IP claims is the responsibility of the Engineering team, with guidance from the Product Management team. Customer Support and Legal play a critical role in enforcing certain policies such as the rapid suspension process. These teams have years of experience implementing these or similar processes. 
The necessary resources will be pulled from the pool of available resources described in detail in the response to Question 31. The following resources are available from those teams:
Development⁄Engineering – 19 employees
Product Management- 4 employees
Customer Support – 12 employees
The resources are more than adequate to support the rights protection mechanisms of .taipei registry. 

Taipei City Government and our back-end operator, Neustar, recognize the vital need to secure the systems and the integrity of the data in commercial solutions. The .taipei registry solution will leverage industry-best security practices including the consideration of physical, network, server, and application elements. 
Neustar’s approach to information security starts with comprehensive information security policies. These are based on the industry best practices for security including SANS (SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security) Institute, NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), and Center for Internet Security (CIS). Policies are reviewed annually by Neustar’s information security team.
The following is a summary of the security policies that will be used in the .taipei registry, including:
1. Summary of the security policies used in the registry operations
2. Description of independent security assessments
3. Description of security features that are appropriate for .taipei
4. List of commitments made to registrants regarding security levels
All of the security policies and levels described in this section are appropriate for the .taipei registry.
30.(a).1 Summary of Security Policies 
Neustar, Inc. has developed a comprehensive Information Security Program in order to create effective administrative, technical, and physical safeguards for the protection of its information assets, and to comply with Neustarʹs obligations under applicable law, regulations, and contracts. This Program establishes Neustarʹs policies for accessing, collecting, storing, using, transmitting, and protecting electronic, paper, and other records containing sensitive information.
The Program defines:
 The policies for internal users and our clients to ensure the safe, organized and fair use of information resources.
 The rights that can be expected with that use. 
 The standards that must be met to effectively comply with policy.
 The responsibilities of the owners, maintainers, and users of Neustar’s information resources.
 Rules and principles used at Neustar to approach information security issues
The following policies are included in the Program:
1. Acceptable Use Policy
The Acceptable Use Policy provides the “rules of behavior” covering all Neustar Associates for using Neustar resources or accessing sensitive information.
2. Information Risk Management Policy
The Information Risk Management Policy describes the requirements for the on-going information security risk management program, including defining roles and responsibilities for conducting and evaluating risk assessments, assessments of technologies used to provide information security and monitoring procedures used to measure policy compliance.
3. Data Protection Policy 
The Data Protection Policy provides the requirements for creating, storing, transmitting, disclosing, and disposing of sensitive information, including data classification and labeling requirements, the requirements for data retention. Encryption and related technologies such as digital certificates are also covered under this policy.
4. Third Party Policy
The Third Party Policy provides the requirements for handling service provider contracts, including specifically the vetting process, required contract reviews, and on-going monitoring of service providers for policy compliance.
5. Security Awareness and Training Policy
The Security Awareness and Training Policy provide the requirements for managing the on-going awareness and training program at Neustar. This includes awareness and training activities provided to all Neustar Associates. 
6. Incident Response Policy
The Incident Response Policy provides the requirements for reacting to reports of potential security policy violations. This policy defines the necessary steps for identifying and reporting security incidents, remediation of problems, and conducting “lessons learned” post-mortem reviews in order to provide feedback on the effectiveness of this Program. Additionally, this policy contains the requirement for reporting data security breaches to the appropriate authorities and to the public, as required by law, contractual requirements, or regulatory bodies.
7. Physical and Environmental Controls Policy
The Physical and Environment Controls Policy provides the requirements for securely storing sensitive information and the supporting information technology equipment and infrastructure. This policy includes details on the storage of paper records as well as access to computer systems and equipment locations by authorized personnel and visitors.
8. Privacy Policy
Neustar supports the right to privacy, including the rights of individuals to control the dissemination and use of personal data that describes them, their personal choices, or life experiences. Neustar supports domestic and international laws and regulations that seek to protect the privacy rights of such individuals.
9. Identity and Access Management Policy
The Identity and Access Management Policy covers user accounts (login ID naming convention, assignment, authoritative source) as well as ID lifecycle (request, approval, creation, use, suspension, deletion, review), including provisions for system⁄application accounts, shared⁄group accounts, guest⁄public accounts, temporary⁄emergency accounts, administrative access, and remote access. This policy also includes the user password policy requirements. 
10. Network Security Policy
The Network Security Policy covers aspects of Neustar network infrastructure and the technical controls in place to prevent and detect security policy violations. 
11. Platform Security Policy
The Platform Security Policy covers the requirements for configuration management of servers, shared systems, applications, databases, middle-ware, and desktops and laptops owned or operated by Neustar Associates.
12. Mobile Device Security Policy
The Mobile Device Policy covers the requirements specific to mobile devices with information storage or processing capabilities. This policy includes laptop standards, as well as requirements for PDAs, mobile phones, digital cameras and music players, and any other removable device capable of transmitting, processing or storing information.
13. Vulnerability and Threat Management Policy
The Vulnerability and Threat Management Policy provides the requirements for patch management, vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, threat management (modeling and monitoring) and the appropriate ties to the Risk Management Policy.
14. Monitoring and Audit Policy
The Monitoring and Audit Policy covers the details regarding which types of computer events to record, how to maintain the logs, and the roles and responsibilities for how to review, monitor, and respond to log information. This policy also includes the requirements for backup, archival, reporting, forensics use, and retention of audit logs.
15. Project and System Development and Maintenance Policy
The System Development and Maintenance Policy covers the minimum security requirements for all software, application, and system development performed by or on behalf of Neustar and the minimum security requirements for maintaining information systems.
30. (a).2 Independent Assessment Reports
Neustar IT Operations is subject to yearly Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), Statement on Auditing Standards #70 (SAS70) and ISO audits. Testing of controls implemented by Neustar management in the areas of access to programs and data, change management and IT Operations are subject to testing by both internal and external SOX and SAS70 audit groups. Audit Findings are communicated to process owners, Quality Management Group and Executive Management. Actions are taken to make process adjustments where required and remediation of issues is monitored by internal audit and QM groups.
External Penetration Test is conducted by a third party on a yearly basis. As authorized by Neustar, the third party performs an external Penetration Test to review potential security weaknesses of network devices and hosts and demonstrate the impact to the environment. The assessment is conducted remotely from the Internet with testing divided into four phases:
 A network survey is performed in order to gain a better knowledge of the network that was being tested
 Vulnerability scanning is initiated with all the hosts that are discovered in the previous phase
 Identification of key systems for further exploitation is conducted
 Exploitation of the identified systems is attempted.
Each phase of the audit is supported by detailed documentation of audit procedures and results. Identified vulnerabilities are classified as high, medium and low risk to facilitate management’s prioritization of remediation efforts. Tactical and strategic recommendations are provided to management supported by reference to industry best practices.
30.(a).3 Augmented Security Levels and Capabilities
There are no increased security levels specific for .taipei. However, Neustar will provide the same high level of security provided across all of the registries it manages. 
A key to Neustar’s Operational success is Neustar’s highly structured operations practices. The standards and governance of these processes: 
 Include annual independent review of information security practices 
 Include annual external penetration tests by a third party 
 Conform to the ISO 9001 standard (Part of Neustar’s ISO-based Quality Management System)
 Are aligned to Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and CoBIT best practices 
 Are aligned with all aspects of ISO IEC 17799
 Are in compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) requirements (audited annually)
 Are focused on continuous process improvement (metrics driven with product scorecards reviewed monthly).
A summary view to Neustar’s security policy in alignment with ISO 17799 can be found in section 30.(a).4 below.
30.(a).4 Commitments and Security Levels 
The .taipei registry commits to high security levels that are consistent with the needs of the TLD. These commitments include:

Compliance with High Security Standards
 Security procedures and practices that are in alignment with ISO 17799
 Annual SOC 2 Audits on all critical registry systems
 Annual 3rd Party Penetration Tests 
 Annual Sarbanes Oxley Audits

Highly Developed and Document Security Policies
 Compliance with all provisions described in section 30.(a).4 below and in the attached security policy document.
 Resources necessary for providing information security
 Fully documented security policies
 Annual security training for all operations personnel

High Levels of Registry Security
 Multiple redundant data centers
 High Availability Design
 Architecture that includes multiple layers of security
 Diversified firewall and networking hardware vendors
 Multi-factor authentication for accessing registry systems
 Physical security access controls
 A 24x7 manned Network Operations Center that monitors all systems and applications
 A 24x7 manned Security Operations Center that monitors and mitigates DDoS attacks
 DDoS mitigation using traffic scrubbing technologies