[Geeks Are Sexy] Technology News

I kept hearing about a threat to “kill” whois, but no one has come up with any other alternate.

The whois information is critical when it comes to information security and I find it difficult to envision what anyone would do without it.

I definitely see your point, believe me. No blogger should also have to worry about physical threats for what he writes, either. There have been cases where bloggers have been tracked down for what they write, and its a scary thought.

But in most cases, the website needs to have someone listed who can be accountable for its security. That way if a site is being used to store stolen password files, warez, illegal pr0n, or is an open proxy that allows hackers to use it for DOS or other attacks, the owner can be notified so something can be done about it.

I think doing away with whois or moving to a completely anonymous system would only help hackers, fraudsters and criminals.

The only other valid alternative will be a third party certifying agency, kinda what they do with SSL certificates. A third party vouches for your identity for a fee so others on the web will know it is safe to openly communicate with your server. And if you choose to bypass that agency, content filters around the world will happily block your site.

I find WHOIS info invaluable to my job. I’m a SysAdmin at a small company, and the whois info lists a contact person for a domain, when the domain expires, and the name servers (DNS servers) for the domain. All three pieces of info are required for me to do my job. I’m fine with anonymized contact info in the domain, as long as when I e-mail that address, or call the phone number, in that record, I get through to someone who is authoritative for the domain.

Whois info verifies what DNS servers are authoritative for a domain, and helps me to show my company’s clients that “no, we aren’t doing the DNS hosting for that domain anymore - look here, at the whois info” or simply to tell them, “please contact ABC, Inc. who run the name servers for your domain; they can update the DNS for http://www.xyz.com to point to our servers” and so on.

So, I think WHOIS is invaluable and necessary. I understand the privacy concerns, and I’m fine with anonymized contact info in the domain, but for business, some valid contact info and the listing for the authoritative name servers are necessary.

Most registrars offer private domain registrations though. So does WHOIS really work anyway? If you whois franzone.com, then all you will find out is that I host with 1&1. If it were a legal matter then I suppose you may be able to get a court order for the real owner of the domain, but for everyday use I don’t think it’s that useful.

Why do people feel the need to be anonymous on the web? So they can be jerks? If you run a domain, their should be a way to contact you if their is a problem. I understand the problem with people using the whois database to harvest email addresses. The simple solution to that is 20 years in prison for offenders.

This is the nuttiest thing I have heard this year. Whois going away for privacy concerns? That is like the phone book going away for privacy concerns. Ridiculous really, and I cannot believe ICANN ever even entertained the idea. You don’t want your private registration showing? Check the damn box, or put in less private info. Some method of contact should be absolutely required.
My 3 cents.

For me, I have one person who has followed me around the web for years and everytime I register and set-up a new blog they always seem to appear, lurking of course, within an hour or two of it going live, even without any kind of announcement. I’m convinced it’s all to do with whois.

I’m not sure why ‘normal’ people should be privy to that kind of information - or if they are, it should only allow the very basic details: name, state, country, not phone number, inside leg measurement and favourite Kevin Smith film as it does now.