.cm

.cm is the ccTLD for Cameroon. It is managed by Agence Nationale des Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication (ANTIC) (English: National Agency for Information and Communication Technologies).

Delegation History

The .CM top-level domain was initially delegated in the mid-1990s to INTELCAM.

Cameroon Telecommunications (CAMTEL) succeeded INTELCAM as the .cm Manager due to a governmental restructuring in 1998.

In 2002, Agence Nationale des Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication (ANTIC) was created.

In 2009, CAMTEL and ANTIC reportedly reached an agreement to transfer the technical, administrative, and financial management of the .cm top-level domain, and ANTIC took over its operations. Between then and 2016, ANTIC submitted several transfer requests to IANA, which were either withdrawn or administratively closed due to technical issues and pending the submission of supporting documents. ANTIC submitted a fully documented application in 2023.

In 2010, the government of Cameroon passed Law No. 2010/013, which governs electronic communications in Cameroon. Article 96 of this law lists ANTIC's mission, which includes “the registration of ‘.cm’ domain names” and “drafting the policy and procedure for the registration of ‘.cm’ domain names, hosting and administration of root servers, and granting of Registrar approval for ‘.cm’.” This was renewed in 2012 by Article 5 of Decree No. 2012/180 and in 2019 by Article 4 of Decree No. 2019/150.

On 14 September 2023, ANTIC submitted a transfer request to IANA, which was conceded in 2024.

Rules and Restrictions

The allocation of a domain name within the naming area is open to any applicant whether Cameroonian or not, who has or hasn't a residence in Cameroon. However, the applicant in question falls under the Cameroonian law as regard the content of his website and the intellectual property rights therein.

Name Restrictions

The applicant must ensure that its application, and in particular the choice of term or terms that it intends to use for the allocation of a domain name, is permitted by law and in particular rules of public order and do not affect the rights of third parties including copyright, rights of trademarks, regions, cities, state institutions and human rights, but not limited to this.

Certain number of terms cannot be allocated as a domain name whatever the sub-area concerned, including their transcription into national languages, without limiting the list, in particular:

• names that are manifestly contrary to public order or morality;
• names related to the operation of the Internet;
• names that express racial and ethnic hatred.

The same applies to the terms of Cameroon, names, acronyms and emblems of State institutions, names of local and regional authorities, Cameroon regions and communes, names of international organizations, names related to the historical heritage and national cultural heritage reserved for their legitimate owners.

Second-level Domains

The .cm Naming Area is subdivided into the following second-level domains:

• .com.cm: for-profit making business entities;
• .org.cm: for international non-profit organizations;
• .gov.cm: for government and state entities;
• .edu.cm: for universities and training institutions;
• .info.cm: for press organs (TV, radio, print and electronic media);
• .pol.cm: for parties and groupings of political parties;
• .art.cm: for artistic and cultural entities;
• .tour.cm: for entities in the tourism sector and hotel industry;
• .rel.cm: for mosques, churches, synagogues and other places of worship recognized in Cameroon;
• .asso.cm: for associations and non-governmental organizations;
• .perso.cm: for individuals;
• .aero.cm: for airports;
• .gare.cm: for the bus and railway stations;
• .net.cm: for entities offering network services, ISP.

Certain "areas" of the domain ".cm" have restrictions on the eligibility of the entity wishing to be registered, in particular ".gov.cm", ".edu.cm" , "pol.cm". For all restricted areas, there are prerequisites to be met before the allocation of the requested domain name.

Characters

The following shall be permitted for the constitution of the requested domain name:

• letters of the alphabet from "A" to "Z" (lower case or capital letter indifferently);
• numbers from "0" to "9" and the symbols "-" (dash) to the exclusion of any other symbol;
• domain names with a maximum length of 255 characters (63 characters between each "." or "label");
• domain names composed directly under the root ".cm" of at least 2 letters ("aa.cm") or a

number and a letter ("a2.cm");

• subfield extensions .cm: of at least two characters (aa.pers./m2.asso.cm);
• the "." (dot) as a sub domain separator in the sector domain categories and naming conventions.

The following are prohibited:

• domain names consisting only of numbers;
• domain names beginning or ending with the "-" character (dash);
• accented characters.

Wildcarding Controversy and Typosquatting

The .cm domain has been a source of trouble throughout its history. In 2006, CAMTEL, the former registry operator, set up a wild card DNS entry covering all unregistered .cm domains. This "typosquatting" maneuver redirected traffic to a site with pay-per-click advertisements. In 2009, McAfee's "Mal Web" Report identified .cm as the most dangerous space on the internet, with nearly 40% of its active URLs containing some sort of threat to PCs.

In December 2010, the government of Cameroon passed Law No. 2010/13, which among other things placed management of the .cm ccTLD in the hands of (ANTIC). It seems likely that the proliferation of typosquatting sites, and the associated bad press, was partially responsible for the introduction of new regulations. While many saw the move as a crackdown on malicious uses of the TLD,, others asserted that the law was largely intended to chill online voices critical of the Cameroonian government. For its part, ANTIC emphasized cybersecurity and reducing criminality through responsible Internet governance, and launched an awareness campaign around those issues.. The ccTLD managing transition was only officially completed in 2024 as it was accepted by IANA.

In 2018, Krebs on Security discussed the findings of security consultant Matthew Chambers regarding a slew of brand name typosquatting .cm domains. Chambers subsequently provided an update to his research in the spring of 2018:

Sites are still redirecting to scareware publishers, locking up machines, and creating audio alerts. See screenshots and video below. Sites will serve up innocuous ads at times, and others messages will be fake alerts or Flash upgrades. Take note that the results will vary, and there’s a good chance that these sites are looking for “unique visitors.” It’s possible that you will have a different outcome based on your browser, location, or other factors, like language.

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