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    ICANN re-opens application system for generic top-level domains

    ICANN re-opens application system for generic top-level domains

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    ICANN is re-opening its generic top-level domain application system 40 days after shutting it down for a security breach that exposed over 150 applicants’ private data.

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    ICANN logo 640
    ICANN logo 640

    ICANN is re-opening its generic top-level domain application system. The announcement comes 40 days after ICANN shut down the system in response to a security breach that exposed over 150 applicants’ private data. Thanks to the re-opening, organizations are once again free to apply for novel domains like ".theverge" for a modest fee of $185,000. The new application window will now run until May 30th, 48 days past the original deadline of April 12th. In addition to fixing the aforementioned bug, ICANN also made some other performance fixes and improved its HTML preview function, a source of criticism from applicants. According to DomainIncite, ICANN’s Chief Operating Officer Akram Atallah has said the outage has cost the organization "hundreds of thousands of dollars."