Google introduced the new “.zip” Top Level Domain (TLD) on May 3, 2023, igniting a firestorm of controversy as security organizations warned against the confusion that was certain to occur.
When clicking on a name that ends in “.zip” are people intending to open an archive file or an internet URL? The confusion that arises between the ZIP file extension and the ZIP TLD is called a “name collision” — and is not a new phenomenon.
According to ICANN, a name collision occurs “when a user unknowingly accesses a name that has been delegated in the public DNS when the user's intent is to access a resource identified by the same name in a private network.” Name collisions have been an issue dating back years. Back in 2013 when ICANN introduced several new TLDs they also introduced a Name Collision Occurrence Management Framework to deal with the problem.
Users and programs alike depend on DNS to navigate the internet. In the worst case, confusion over whether some name is a public DNS name or another private resource can cause sensitive data to fall into the hands of unintended recipients.
Controlled interruption
To alert network administrators to potential name collisions in DNS, the Name Collision Occurrence Management Framework prescribes a “controlled interruption.” In this approach, a TLD publishes special DNS records — instructions that provide information about a domain — at the root level. Some examples include mail exchange (MX), service location (SRV), text (TXT), and address (A) reco ..
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