TLD Application System

The TLD Application System (TAS) is the official online application system implemented by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers for the new gTLD program. Applicants are required to complete the registration on the system to be able to submit and manage their applications. The TAS registration is the first step in the application process and it is open from January 12 to March 29, 2012. Applicants need to follow three steps which include: filling out an applicant profile, legal review and payment of a non-refundable deposit of $US 5000. Access to TAS will not be granted until the deposit is confirmed by ICANN. The TAS will send e-mail updates and notifications to the applicants and they can also track the progress of every application they submitted.

According to ICANN senior vice president Kurt Pritz, every TAS account can store as much as 50 applications. As of February 13, 2012, he reported that there were already 100 applicants for new gTLD.

Reports on Technical Failures

FairWinds Partners reported that some applicants encountered technical failures using the TLD Application System and were not able to complete the profile registration. TAS was un-functional for two days. To resolve the issue, ICANN announced that there will be a schedule TAS systems maintenance during Sunday mornings from 12:00 midnight to 2:00 in the morning UTC. The complete schedule for TAS maintenance is available here

On February 2, Jeff Neuman and Ken Hanson executives from Neustar tweeted that their applications were missing on TAS. Neumann's tweeted, “Check your applications in TAS. Reports of missing applications- Our application 4 .Neustar is 1 of them. TAS also lost our “unique” ID which we got upon paying initial 5k. We need ID to pay remainder, fill out app & see all apps.” ICANN explained that the system encountered a display issue, which was resolved after two hours. All data were visible and no missing information.

On April 12, 2002, ICANN's Chief Operating Officer Akram Atallah issued a statement acknowledging that a a possible glitch in the TLD application system software caused a limited number of users saw the file names and user names of other users in some instances. He said that ICANN decided to shut down the system until April 17 to protect the data of applicants. Atallah also said that ICANN is investigating how the problem happened and necessary measures will be done to resolve the situation.

Following Atallah's statement, Kevin Murphy of DomainIncite reported that an applicant claimed that he noticed that a file from another applicant was attached to his application on April 6 and immediately reported the problem to ICANN. The applicant said, "I could infer the applicant/string… based on the name of the file." However the actual contents of the file was not visible. The TAS problem ignited different speculations and questions within the internet community particularly the how long will the TAS suffer from vulnerability, who among the applicants saw others applications and if some applicants took advantage of the situation and filed competing bids.

ICANN also announced that TAS will be offline temporarily and the extension of the application window until April 20.

Apart from the extension of the application window, ICANN also informed journalists that the problem was not caused by a cyber attack, no application data were lost and the TAS system is expected to open on April 18. According to .nxt analysis, the situation maybe considered as a "non-denia-denial category and ICANN was following the second path dealing with a suspected hack."

On April 14, 2012, ICANN issued another statement related to the TAS problem. The internet governing body identified that a report on March 19 was the only incident related to the technical glitch.

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