Over 500 European financial institutions have registered for .bank top level domains (TLDs). The domains have additional security functionality built in, and the hope is that they will help reduce cyber crime and make the internet safer.
Ben Crawford, CEO of CentralNic who issued the data said: "Restructuring the aspects that allow cybercrime in banking is a priority and tackling the domain element will significantly reduce the chances of online intellectual property theft. Now, quite simply, the only way to own a .bank address is to be a bank."
Owning a .bank domain costs the institutions about $1500. This higher price is in part down to the fact that .bank domains have additional security features built into the registrations, reflecting the increasing security requirements place on banks in order to facilitate safer online banking.
The private company fTLD Registry Services, which is owned and run by the the banks, was set up in order to manage the registration of .bank TLDs. The institutions involved include include British Bankers Association, European Banking Federation and the Royal Bank of Scotland Group.
The TLD was issued by US regulators. IThe Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has been in the process of expanding TLDs, which now include .suks and .porn.
In recent times, Tor’s .ONION pseudo TLD domain has also been given special status meaning it can be used on Tor and site administrators on those websites can now apply for security certificates, helping the TOR ecosystem benefit from additional security too. The .onion domain had previously only been allowed in the open web, and ensures the idenity of users.
