.no domains among the safest in the world

(Trondheim, March 16th 2007): A world-wide web test ranks .no as number three among all the 265 national top-level domains in the world when it comes to safe use of web sites. Norway gets good rating for virus as well as for other threats. There are also less spam and pop-ups on .no sites than on sites within most other top-level domains in the world.

The test demonstrates huge geographical differences regarding safety for use of web sites within different top-level domains.

Huge differences

Four Nordic countries are ranked among the five safest national top-level domains, with Finland on top. Ireland is the second best, just barely before Norway. The most risky of the larger countries are Romania and Russia. However, Netherlands (.nl), Germany (.de) and United Kingdom (.uk) are all ranked a bit down on the list.

Among the top-level domains which are not nationally connected, .info is at the bottom. The very popular .com domain is the second most risky. Not surprisingly there are no risky web sites within .gov, which is only available to United States government agencies. .edu also gets a good rank among the generic top-level domains.

All web sites in the world participate in the test, which has been carried out by the American agency McAfee SiteAdvisor in March 2007. The web sites are continously scanned and tested for risk of spam, pop-ups and risky downloads, and are rated green, yellow or red. The automated tests are completed by experiences and comments from users before the results are analyzed and published.

Domain name policy is vital

The analysis points out the name policy for the top-level domain as a major reason for the differences. In Norway, for instance, only authorized companies are allowed to register a domain name directly within .no. Thus the company responsible for a web site can be traced very easily. In addition the agency considers that the price for holding a domain may have some importance.

Managing Director in Norid, Hilde Thunem, is very satisfied with the ranking. - These results prove that .no is managed in a professional and proper way so that users of Norwegian web sites can feel relatively safe. However, all Internet users have to take care, and especially when they visit web sites within the most risky top-level domains, she says.

Contact persons:

Hilde M. Thunem, Managing Director, hilde.thunem@uninett.no, telephone +47 414 49 885
Elisabeth Farstad, Senior Adviser, elisabeth.farstad@uninett.no, telephone +47 971 29 423

Facts about top-level domains

At the moment the number of top-level domains, such as .no in Norway and .se in Sweden, counts a total of 265 world-wide. The generic top-level domains, such as .com and .net, count 17. Top-level domains are delegated from ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).

http://www.icann.org/

More information about the test from McAfee SiteAdvisor:
http://www.siteadvisor.com/studies/map_malweb_mar2007.html

About McAfee SiteAdvisor

SiteAdvisor was founded in 2005 by a group of MIT engineers. The purpose was to meet the challenges connected to new threats towards Internet users, like spam, spyware and identity theft scams. They built a system of automated testers which continually patrol the web mapping and testing web sites, files and services. Based on test findings and user comments, a web site is rated green, yellow or red. As a result the corresponding top-level domain can be ranked as well. Based on these rankings the user can decide wheather she or he wants to visit the site and use the services they offer.

http://www.siteadvisor.com/

About Norid:

Norid is the .no registry, which means that all domains directly within .no must be registered with Norid. In addition to processing applications and developing the domain name policy, Norid is responsible for the technical operation of the name service, allowing the Norwegian Internet to be globally accessible at all times. According to its role as a neutral actor, Norid also handles other national tasks which have a natural relation to the core activities.

The registry follows a principle of only handling essential core tasks inhouse, while other tasks are outsourced to companies who offer registrar services in agreement with Norid. The activites are strongly internationally orientated with a wide range of contacts in technical as well as domain administrative environments in other countries.

Norid is also responsible for the top level domains .bv (Bouvet Island) and .sj (Svalbard and Jan Mayen). The current domain name policy do not, however, allow registration within these domains.

The service is regulated by the Domain Name Regulations and is supervised by the Norwegian Post and Telecommunications Authority. Norid is not a public administrative agency, and the allocation of domain names is based on private law rules. The company is run non-profit. Norid is part of the UNINETT Group and is located in Trondheim with the rest of the Group.