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April 09, 2015

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Here's the The Lowdown from DN Journal,
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to fill you in on the latest buzz going around the domain name industry. 

The Lowdown is compiled by DN Journal Editor & Publisher Ron Jackson.

New Study Says "Consumers Feel Uncomfortable with the ‘New Internet’ and New gTLDs"

The quote in the headline above comes directly from a press release we received today from the NCC Group about a "New Internet Study" they conducted (in collaboration with IDG Research Sevices) that involved a survey of 10,000 consumers (half form the U.S. and half from the UK). NCC Group is a publicly traded global information assurance firm (listed on the London Stock Exchange) who says they serve 15,000 clients through 1,000 specialists located in 20 offices around the world. The sub-heading on their press release stated "87% don’t feel very comfortable surfing on new domains with phishing on new domains already underway – and set to get worse." 

We sent a message to a leading new gTLD registry operator requesting their take on this study but have not yet received a reply. The full text of the NCC Group press release is below:

 

With hundreds of new generic top-level domains (gTLD) arriving on the Internet – like .shop, .bank and .london – research has revealed that 87 percent of consumers do not feel very comfortable visiting them.  

The survey, entitled the “New Internet Study,” by global information assurance firm NCC Group questioned 10,000 consumers across the US and UK regarding their attitudes to these new gTLDs.  

With more domains going live, 42 percent of web users also reported feeling less secure online since their introduction. Data from NCC Group’s Domain Abuse Monitoring service backs up this consumer concern, with 50 of the new gTLDs being used to launch phishing emails in the last ten months alone.  

Rob Cotton, CEO at NCC Group, said: “The Internet is undergoing the biggest change in its history, causing uncertainty for consumers. We’ve also shown that the new domains are already being used for nefarious purposes, with users expressing security concerns too.  

“Currently there is a lack of awareness of this change in the business community. This is an issue that affects a number of different departments, from marketing and IT all the way up to the board – but most firms are oblivious.  

“Businesses cannot afford to do nothing here. The new gTLDs offer a wealth of possibilities for cyber criminals to attack an organization’s online presence. Brand reputation, customer trust and ultimately revenue are all at risk.  

“Companies are at a crossroads. A defensive strategy of buying up brand related domains might have been a simple task when there was only 22 gTLDs, but is it feasible when there are over a thousand? Purchasing your own brand gTLD would allow you to carve out your own space on the Internet, but would you have the back-end systems to support it and the initial capital to invest?  

“Organizations need to make a decision and quickly. Doing nothing is not a solution.”  

Other findings include:  

·         45 percent of those surveyed said they would feel more likely to visit sites with new gTLDs if companies were clear about the steps being taken to protect users’ personal information

·         UK respondents are more comfortable visiting sites with new domains than their US counterparts (14% vs 12%, respectively)

·         US consumers are more likely to feel less secure as a result of the changes to gTLDs than their UK peers (46% US vs 39% UK, respectively)

·         Baby boomers (those born in 1964 or earlier) are more likely to feel much less secure with these additional domain extensions than millennials (those born between 1980 and 1996) and generation Xers (those born between 1965 and 1979)

Survey methodology

The survey was conducted in collaboration with IDG Research Services. Data collection took place online among US and UK consumers 18 years or older during October 2014. A total of 10,000 consumers (5,000 from the US and 5,000 from the UK) who regularly use the Internet for transactional activities such as online banking and shopping or managing investments or healthcare services, completed the survey. Participants were fairly equally split by gender (51 percent female; 49 percent male) and represent a range of age groups: 36 percent under the age of 35, 27 percent between 35 and 49 years old, and 37 percent age 50 or older.

(Posted April 9, 2015) 


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