The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which is in charge of domain names, has extended the deadline for submission of application for a top-level Internet domain name due a technological glitch.
ICANN has also conceded that rival applicants for such internet domains could have accessed each others’ secret bids because of flaws in its registration software, forcing the agency to take the TLD application system offline.
The agency said it has took the system offline to protect applicant data and was extending its application deadline which was ending on last Thursday.
The regulator is currently reviewing the data to confirm the applicants affected, notify them and mitigate the impact of this issue on the application process.
ICANN COO Akram Atallah said as reported earlier, some applicants were able to see file names and user names that belonged to other applicants.
"An intensive review has produced no evidence that any data beyond the file names and user names could be accessed by other users. In addition, it does not appear that this issue caused any corruption or loss of data," added Akram.
ICANN stated it is extensively testing the system to address the issue and the system will reopen on Tuesday, April 17.
The target date to publish the applied-for new domain names is 30 April, though it is subject to change.
ICANN has been inviting applications for new suffixes for domain name which will join ".com" and other domain names which are currently in use.
Under the new plan, about 1,000 domain name suffixes could be added every year after the commencement of the system in 1980s.
Presently, there are 22 generic suffixes such as .com and .org, and about 250 country codes are available and the new suffixes will allow companies to operate web addresses ending in their company name.
