WHOIS Tiered Access and Accreditation Program

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

ICANN Org has proposed an accreditation program to provide tiered access to non-public WHOIS data. This program would involve “codes of conduct which would establish the standardized criteria, limitations, and responsibilities for granting access to non-public WHOIS data to the accredited parties. Selection of the accredited parties could be facilitated by designated expert groups.”

In this document we comment about the overall requirements for any ICANN accreditation program. APWG is also willing to act as an expert group to facilitate the certification of qualified applicants from the security field.

We recommend that the ICANN Board pass a Temporary Policy to make an accreditation plan a reality, directing the participation of the registry operators and registrars. Below ( we propose a technical execution scheme that we believe will be practical to implement in mid-2018, thereby enabling access for authorized parties while a longer-term program is developed. (See “Proposed Operating Model” on pages 10-12.)

We support the contours of the “Model 1.3” accreditation plan (the “Cannoli Model”) proposed by ICANN’s Intellectual Property Constituency and Business Constituency.2 That plan lays out a rational framework, and we support it with the modifications described below.

The below document has been reviewed by the APWG Board of Directors.

APWG GDPR Comments Accreditation Access Whois Data