ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has announced a landmark step in the use of ".krd," a top-level domain (TLD) name like those generally reserved for individual countries. The KRG's Department of Information Technology (DIT) said Wednesday that the mandatory "Sunrise Period" necessary for adopting the TLD had begun and will end on October 4. This test period is when other entities may pre-register names that are the same or similar in order to avoid overlap. The Sunrise Period occurs prior to the general launch of a top-level domain, such as ".krd," which are the highest level in the hierarchical Internet's domain name system (DNS) of the Internet. The DIT has hailed the launch of ".krd" as a highly anticipated milestone for the KRG and has spent considerable time preparing for the acquisition and launch of this essential top level domain. By operating its own TLD, the KRG will improve its Internet visibility and may boost the region's digital economy, said the DIT, adding that the move offers the worldwide Kurdish community a new online homeland. “We at DIT are fully aware of our responsibilities and are committed to protect the Internet’s security and stability while operating our registry system at the world roots of the internet,” said Hiwa Afandi, head of the DIT. In December 2013, after passing numerous tests and procedures, the DIT signed the ".krd" registry agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), an Internet watchdog organization that coordinates domain names. In July 2014, ".krd" was added to the root zone of the Internet and officially delegated, becoming a technical and operational reality on the internet. Now, Internet users worldwide will soon see web addresses ending with .krd - the first name space on Internet for Kurdistan-affiliated individuals (.krd), businesses (.co.krd), government entities (.gov.krd) and educational institutions (.edu.krd). Top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name. For example, in the domain name www.example.com, the top-level domain is "com." Responsibility for management of most top-level domains is delegated to specific organizations like the ICANN, which operates the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority and is in charge of maintaining the DNS root zone.
.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
