Thursday, December 11, 2003 Department of Information Technology e-Michigan Web Development

Thursday, December 11, 2003
Department of Information Technology
e-Michigan Web Development
Agenda
Current domain name policy
Domain names at the external proxy
The dark side of domain names
Cyber-squatting
Recommendations
Questions
Department of Information Technology
e-Michigan Web Development
1
Current Domain Name Policy
1310.20 issued January 1997
 Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical,
distributed service used to assist in the location of
resources, such as file servers, world wide web
servers, E-mail services, etc. which are attached
to the Internet.
 The DNS does its job by converting or resolving
easier to remember resource names
(midb.michigan.gov) into their equivalent 4 octet
Internet address (167.240.251.34) which is
actually used in the Internet routing process.
 The Network Operations Center (NOC) operates
the primary DNS service for the State.
Department of Information Technology
e-Michigan Web Development
2
Current Domain Name Policy
1310.20 issued January 1997 pg2
Operating Units (OU) may choose to operate their
own DNS and create sub-domains at the division or
office level, provided they strictly comply with
Internet standards.
The list of agency domain names will be maintained
by NOC and entered into the DNS when agency
resources (files, etc) need to be accessed within
State networks or via the external Internet.
OU domain names may be used in other naming
conventions, for example, as prefixes for naming
files, GroupWise domains and local area network
servers.
Department of Information Technology
e-Michigan Web Development
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Current Domain Name Policy - Revised
1310.37 issued November 2001
Michigan State Government’s Portal is registered
with the United States General Services
Administration as the "Michigan.Gov" domain.
The DNS converts or resolves easier to remember
resource names (Michigan.Gov) into their equivalent
4 octet Internet numerical address which is used by
Internet routing equipment to establish host to host
communication links .
The Network Operations Center (NOC) manages and
maintains the primary DNS service for the State.
Department of Information Technology
e-Michigan Web Development
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Current Domain Name Policy - Revised
1310.37 issued November 2001 pg2
Procedure 1310.20 Internet Domain Name and Service
Naming is targeted for revision or possible
obsolescence, but is not rescinded at this time.
It is expected that for some time the domains identified
under Procedure 1310.20 will co-exist to allow an
orderly transition of content and applications to the new
portal and the more defined Uniform Resource Locator
(URL) naming conventions outlined in this procedure.
The Michigan.gov Portal content will adhere to the
michigan.gov name.
Agencies are not permitted to insert agency identifiers
between the www and Michigan to create a sub-domain
address such as www.dit.michigan.gov. Where agency
identifiers are necessary they will follow a virgule after
the .gov to form an address similar to
www.michigan.gov/dit.
Department of Information Technology
e-Michigan Web Development
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Domain names and external proxy
Nearly 200
individual
proxy entries
are currently
hosted by the
NOC external
DNS servers
Department of Information Technology
e-Michigan Web Development
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Domain names and external proxy
These seem harmless to the user, the state
agency and to most of us that have grow so
accustomed to surfing the web for all our
information needs.
Some like (and I’m not trying to single anyone
out here)…
www.mi529prepaid.org
www.mich-freedomacademy.org
www.mesb.org
www.2649.org
www.bingedrink.com
mi529prepaid.com
met4kid.com
mimhefa.org
Department of Information Technology
e-Michigan Web Development
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Domain names and external proxy
These domain names have been purchased
using popular domain services like
register.com, tucows.com and others.
The cost is nominal, starting at just $35.00
and ranging up to over $150.00 depending on
how long the agency plans on keeping it
active.
If you did some quick math, 200 domain
names at an average of $75.00 per year costs
the state $15,000 per year.
Department of Information Technology
e-Michigan Web Development
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The Dark-Side of domain names
Utilize existing Vignette content management
infrastructure to
Speed Delivery
Lower Costs
Increase Adoption by Users
Put in place standards that apply to all
applications regardless of the technology
platform.
Introduce usability guidelines so users can
successfully navigate complex government
processes on-line.
Affects all sites designed to conduct official
State business, whether directed at general
consumers or targeted constituent needs
Department of Information Technology
e-Michigan Web Development
9
The Dark-Side of domain names
The state has started seeing some dark sides
to domain names.
What happens to a domain name when it’s no
longer needed, or the program goes away, or
the task force accomplishes what it set out to
do?
What happens to all the sites that may have
linked to the domain name, including library
and school computers that have the sites book
marked?
What difference does it make after all?
Department of Information Technology
e-Michigan Web Development
10
The Dark-Side of domain names
The dark side of domain names is that they
are actively being sought by some of the
biggest abusers of the Internet world
companies or individuals who seek to exploit,
extort or otherwise highjack legitimate domain
names for their own use.
Users have no idea that are connecting to
Once there, the user will decide to stay and
visit, hopefully long enough to be lured into
returning later, or to start making money
transactions on the spot
These domain names look totally normal in the
favorites menu, and anyone scanning access
log files would never notice them.
Department of Information Technology
e-Michigan Web Development
11
Cyber-squatting = Extortion
Cyber-squatting (a term that has been
used to define this activity) refers to
companies or individuals who prey on
expired domain names and buy them up,
only to leave the domain name and even
page titles exactly as it they are.
This fools site crawlers and automated
filters from even detecting that they are in
fact illegitimate sites and contain the most
offensive material.
To buy the domains names back, the
original owners are required to pay
thousands of dollars or face the continued
bane of having their once legitimate
program abused by offensive material.
Legally, there is absolutely nothing that
can be done.
Department of Information Technology
e-Michigan Web Development
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Recommendations
Agencies are encouraged to refrain from
purchasing specialty domain names that must
be maintained indefinitely, in order to be
preserved, even after they have served their
purpose.
Agencies should use legitimate domain naming
conventions that the state has already put in
place to protect the state from this abuse.
Agencies should try to use the approved
domain name in all their agency specific
applications.
www.state.mi.us/webappname
Department of Information Technology
e-Michigan Web Development
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Recommendations - Examples
www.state.mi.us/webapp/
www.state.mi.us/folio
www.state.mi.us/gw5
www.state.mi.us/hdamk
www.state.mi.us/mitownhall
www.state.mi.us/msp/crd
www.state.mi.us/msp/ohsp/
Department of Information Technology
e-Michigan Web Development
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Recommendations – Michigan.gov
In addition, the Michigan.gov domain
has been made available to all state
agencies that wish to market their
program or office to allow direct, safe,
accurate and maintainable domain
names and URLs that can be completely
controlled by the state.
This also places the site into the state’s
ENTERPRISE search engine and will
increase the likelihood of it being found.
Department of Information Technology
e-Michigan Web Development
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Recommendations – Michigan.gov
www.michigan.gov/jointpermit
www.michigan.gov/wdl
www.michigan.gov/lyme
www.michigan.gov/fostercare
www.michigan.gov/osteoporosis
www.michigan.gov/westnilevirus
www.michigan.gov/metro
Department of Information Technology
e-Michigan Web Development
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Recommendations – Michigan.gov
Michigan.gov domain names are permanent
and never require renewal
Michigan.gov marketing URLs are FREE
They can be changed at any time
They will never fall into the hands of
extortionists
DIT Infrastructure Services and Telecom can
set up a domain name for your DMZ hosted or
agency-hosted servers
<www.state.mi.us/webappname>
All of this is maintained in house and will
never expose the state to unwanted domain
name usage or politically embarrassing
situations.
Department of Information Technology
e-Michigan Web Development
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Help prevent unwanted access
More importantly, the citizens – and
school children - of the state will be
spared from unexpectedly visiting one
of these offensive sites when accessing
legitimate state content.
Department of Information Technology
e-Michigan Web Development
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