On December 2nd, the Domain Trust Community convened its 16th meeting in two sessions, east and west, to ensure broad global participation. While the agendas were aligned, each session surfaced different perspectives and discussions based on the participants and speakers who joined. Taken together, the two meetings provided a comprehensive snapshot of where Domain Trust stands today: a maturing initiative with tangible technical progress, growing community engagement, and a clear focus on sustainability and impact heading into 2026.
Setting the Stage: Objectives and Community Momentum
Both sessions framed the discussion around three core themes: progress on 2025 objectives, recent platform and data improvements, and ways to sustain and scale the initiative.
Across both meetings, there was clear recognition that Domain Trust has moved from concept to operational reality, having just celebrated its 5th anniversary in November.
Key objectives for 2025—re-architecting the data platform, launching a user interface, advancing the Domain Trust Badge concept, and increasing visibility—are either complete or well underway. Other priorities, including a formal measurement framework for the Domain Trust Badge, remain in progress and will carry into 2026.
Domain Trust Progress and Future Direction
GCA provided a progress update with highlights including:
- A significant data re-architecture to support scale and flexibility
- A new user interface and API to serve both technical and non-technical users
- Growth of the Action Working Group, which has identified nearly 20 concrete actions to reduce domain abuse and is ready to move to the measurement and implementation stages, with the final objective of building a Domain Trust Badge
In both sessions, GCA emphasized not just collecting data, but using it to mobilize collective action across the ecosystem. The Action Working Group is expected to finalize its list by January, with a goal of presenting results publicly, ideally at the ICANN 86 conference in Seville, Spain.
Platform Redesign and System Enhancements
Both meetings walked through the redesigned Domain Trust platform. GCA’s engineering team presented a new dashboard featuring enhanced data visualizations, improved filtering, and greater transparency into submissions and classifications.
Key enhancements include:
- A comprehensive domains table with advanced filtering options
- Support for API-based and UI-based submissions
- Self-descriptive data fields and user-managed API keys
- User invitation functionality to support team-based workflows
- A testing mode that allows organizations to experiment without risk
The system now breaks submissions down into core domains, TLDs, and second-level domains, and supports subdomain handling. Participants also discussed the addition of a comment field, which could potentially allow for community-led labeling schemes for grouped domains.
Across both sessions, participants welcomed the smooth migration process and emphasized the importance of continued feedback to guide future iterations. The eastern session focused more on onboarding and usability for non-technical users, while the western session delved deeper into technical questions about subdomains, pattern recognition, and future analytical capabilities.
Sustainability and the Sponsorship Model
A central topic in both meetings was sustainability. Domain Trust remains free of charge for all participants, but the financial costs of operating and evolving the platform must be covered to ensure long-term viability.
GCA outlined a tiered sponsorship program to align mission, ecosystem collaboration, and community participation. The sponsorship model is intended to cover operational costs and reinforce shared ownership of the initiative. Community members are encouraged to review documentation, consider direct support, and help identify potential sponsors within their networks.
The western session included a more detailed discussion of how the sponsorship program connects to long-term plans for registry and registrar outreach and deeper collaboration with other nonprofit efforts addressing domain abuse.
Community Updates: DNS Abuse Enforcement and Shared Language
In the eastern session, ICANN presented an overview of its DNS abuse enforcement activities over the past 16 months. Since April 2024, ICANN has initiated approximately 400 enforcement actions, issued four formal notices of breach, and directly mitigated around 20,000 malicious domains. Indirectly, these actions have driven broader systemic improvements affecting hundreds of thousands more domains. ICANN also reviewed new complaint submission guidelines published in November 2025, emphasizing that complaints should first be directed to registrars and registries, with ICANN serving as an escalation point.
In the western session, the focus shifted to shared definitions and incident response. FIRST presented the work of its DNS Abuse Special Interest Group, including the DNS Abuse Techniques Matrix and recently published detection documents. Discussion highlighted the value of a common language across stakeholders and acknowledged areas where the matrix will continue to evolve, such as separating DDoS and DoS techniques.
Together, the two perspectives underscored how enforcement, classification, and shared understanding reinforce one another.
Malware Analysis and DGA Detection
Both sessions featured a presentation from the Fraunhofer Institute on DGArchive, a tool designed to analyze domain generation algorithms (DGAs) and their associated malware. The demo showed how reverse and forward lookups can associate domains with known malware campaigns, with examples including Bumblebee and Ghostwaver.
Fraunhofer highlighted the challenges of reverse engineering obfuscated malware and the importance of external contributions to improve coverage. Interest from registrars and abuse desks was particularly strong, with participants noting the tool’s potential value in operational abuse handling.
Closing Reflections
Taken together, the east and west sessions of Domain Trust Community Meeting #16 reflected a project that is both technically grounded and community driven. The differences between the sessions—whether in enforcement focus, technical depth, or ecosystem framing—reinforced the value of global participation.
As Domain Trust looks toward 2026, the emphasis is clear: turn data into action, broaden collaboration, and build a sustainable foundation for collective impact against domain abuse.
Participants joined from 12 countries and represented 24 organizations from a diversity of industries. The next Community meeting is scheduled for March 31. Stay tuned!
