Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Resolve Phishing Problems with .BANK TLD?

It amazes me how the tech press finds simple solutions for complex problems, and then decides that the beneficiaries are willing to pay big bucks for it. Consider this article on preventing Phishing.

Why do banks and other financial institutions operate under the public top-level domains, like .com? The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the body that creates new top-level domains, should create a new, secure domain just for this reason—something like “.bank,” for example.

Registering new domains under such a top-level domain could then be restricted to bona fide financial organizations. And the price for the domain wouldn’t be just a few dollars: It could be something like $50,000—making it prohibitively expensive to most copycats. Banks would love this. They would move their existing online banks under a more secure domain in no time.
"Banks would love this?" Has this guy ever worked for a bank? Banks understand that the best way to make money is to find ways to avoid spending money. This is why most banks are working on systems invented in the 1970s, and why the one I work for only retired their last Windows 98 computer last year. None of the banks I know would happily give up their $25 a year .COM address for a $50,000 .BANK address unless it were a regulatory requirments. And even then they'd be looking for a way out of it.

Note to the wise: When looking for solutions to problems, try to avoid solutions with costs you would not truly be willing to pay yourself.

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