On September 11, 2021 nic.at reachead a new record. The 1.4 millionth .at domain is called physio-ruttinger.at and was registered by an Austrian domain owner. The self-employed physiotherapist, who already has his own website including a matching .at domain, wants to be found even better on the Internet in the future and has therefore decided on a multi-domain strategy.

In united-domains AG, a subsidiary of United Internet, ipcom GmbH has gained an important international registrar for its Anycast service RcodeZero DNS. The German Internet provider stands for excellent customer support and prioritises top-level security. Therefore, it is obvious that united-domains makes no compromises when it comes to security and that optimised protection of DNS infrastructure is a top priority.

InterNetX, long-time .at partner, asked our Head of Operations, Klaus Darilion, some very interesting questions about DNS security, which we would like to share with you. In the interview, Klaus Darilion explains what DNS security means and how this technology can help us protect domains. He also gives valuable tips on DNSSEC and other relevant security products for those who are particularly concerned about protecting their own domain(s).  

Since December 2020, the RcodeZero DNS Anycast network is protected from DDoS attacks by three independent DDoS mitigation providers on a global scale. After a long evaluation phase, Klaus Darilion, Head of Operations, has chosen Cloudflare's "Magic Transit" product of different providers, because a reliable DDoS defense solution is comparable to an insurance.

Good news from our domain suggestion tool: The ".at-Domainfinder" now delivers even better suggestions – and at three times the speed. The tool now also "knows" place names and has a much better understanding of grammar.

After a long investigation, the infrastructure of the malware "Emotet" was successfully taken down in a coordinated action by several law enforcement agencies a few weeks ago. Emotet spread via e-mails containing Office documents in which malicious macros were embedded. The CERT.at (Computer Emergency Response Team), operated by nic.at, has been helping with the "clean-up" since then.

The EU project "Connecting Europe Facility" (CEF) has set itself the task of supporting growth, employment and competitiveness in the EU through targeted investments in infrastructure. The aim is to promote the creation of highly developed, sustainable and efficient trans-European networks in the sub-sectors of energy, transport and telecommunications. "OpenINTEL-lookup" is one of the projects that have been successfully implemented by our Research & Development department in cooperation with the CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team), which is also operated by us, with CEF support.

Regionality and quality have top priority at the Feinkost Fleischerei Auernig in Salzburg. The business has been in the family for three generations, and is currently run by Stefan Auernig. He was one of the first to recognise the potential of a meat vending machine: There, in addition to butter, eggs and milk, ready-made meals such as Kaspressknödel and Gulasch are available in winter. In summer, the vending machine is a popular place to go before spontaneous barbecues and also offers vegetarian products. We talked to Stefan about the current situation, the importance of a professional website for craft businesses, and his online shop.

The so-called "Internet of Things" is a broad field and ranges from intelligent traffic lights to medical devices and equipment for the "smart home". However, numerous devices still have vulnerabilities and allow attackers to take over devices such as webcams, speakers or even surveillance cameras and thus spy on their users. Also smart sex toys, which Doris Hauser from the nic.at Operations Team investigated as part of her bachelor's thesis, pose a major risk.

A domain is unique and valuable - that's exactly why you should protect it accordingly! For this purpose we offer various security products: Security Lock, DNSSEC and RcodeZero DNS. Here you can find a short overview and a detailed explanation video.

Anyone who wants to have long-term success on the Internet should think carefully about their domain strategy. This not only leads to higher, organic (i.e. naturally generated) traffic and ensures a good position for the website in the search engine results, but also contributes to brand awareness. We recently called for questions on this topic on social media, which we will now answer in this article.

What sounds at first  like a seismology term is actually to do with the Domain Name System: The "DNS Magnitude" has been developed by our Head of R&D Alex Mayrhofer together with his colleagues Michael Braunöder and Aaron Kaplan, and represents a DNS-based metric of the popularity of a domain. The idea for this was developed in 2016 and has now been finalized in the form of a comprehensive paper supported by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).

At the end of a certainly unforgettable year 2020, this nic//report provides exciting insights and facts about the topic "COVID-19" and its impact on the domain industry.

As digitisation progresses, illegal online content unfortunately is also becoming increasingly common. No wonder, then, that the pressure on the so-called country-code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) to help in the fight against illegal online content is also growing. But what can ccTLD registries actually contribute as technical operators in the Internet infrastructure? CENTR explains the tasks of ccTLDs and their role in connection with online content in the recently published explanatory video.

Even COVID-19 does not stop our nic.at team from getting involved in a good cause: This is proven by the 2,941.66 kilometers we covered in the course of the Charity Challenge 2020 in the last weeks and months for the benefit of the “Herzkinder Österreich”. Last week the time had come: The ceremonial check handover took place on a small scale and of course in compliance with the necessary Corona safety rules.