Potential Transfer of Nonprofit Web Services Creates Concern

A linchpin in the chain of technology supporting millions of nonprofit websites might soon change, prompting concerns about possible service disruptions or security problems.

Websites with domain names .org and .ngo are managed by the nonprofit Public Interest Registry, which since 2003 has hired a company called Afilias to operate its directory. When an internet user tries to visit an .org or .ngo website, Afilias directs the request to the right place and performs other critical services.

The Public Interest Registry recently announced it is considering hiring a different company to run its back-end services and will award a new contract by the end of 2016. If the contract with Afilias is not renewed, the registry will have to be transferred — a big undertaking.

“There’s inherently a stability issue when you shift a big registry,” said Paul Twomey, former chief executive of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, the nonprofit that governs internet policy.

Although some transitions of this type of have occurred with other domain registries, they’ve been relatively small. The Public Interest Registry oversees more than 10 million domains, and “the larger the registry, the more issues there are around the transition,” Mr. Twomey said.

A mistake during such a transition could make affected websites go dark, lose their security protections, or prevent emails from going through, according to Ram Mohan, executive vice president and chief technology officer of Afilias.

One source of worry is the fact that a transition could require registrars — third-party companies that sell domain names and provide public-facing services to nonprofits — to “dedicate a lot of time and attention to managing the transfer” by changing relevant records, a job that they’re not necessarily incentivized to do, Mr. Twomey said.

“How are you going to make sure the registrars are going to make the changes?” he said. “They don’t make money out of making those changes.”

The prospect of transitioning a domain directory has previously sounded alarms in other sectors. In 2013, when the U.S. Department of Commerce was considering switching service providers for the domain .us, registrars wrote letters to express concern that a transition could lead to a “potential drop in performance” for affected websites. Ultimately, the department renewed the contract with its service provider.

In an email statement to The Chronicle, the Public Interest Registry downplayed any risk associated with the transfer. “Should a transition be required, Public Interest Registry will work closely with its providers to deliver a smooth transition to help ensure there is no disruption for current and future registrants,” organization representatives said.