The end of 2024 is upon us.

It was a year where the DNS industry and others gathered to celebrate the fact that the Internet is now 50 years old. We attended several of these events.

New legislation

It was a big year both for the Internet and DNSRF for other reasons too. New European legislation focussed specifically on the DNS which will lead to significant changes in how the domain name industry functions, came into force. 

This being the EU, though, they will actually come into force next year (if you want to know when, check out our NIS2 tracker). Those changes will kick in around the same time as broader governance of the Internet and will be under scrutiny for the first time in 20 years by the United Nations through the WSIS+20 process.

Events and roundtables

The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) has just taken place - and, as ever, we ran a session in Riyadh [video | transcript]. We produced a report this year detailing just how useful and effective the IGF has been over the years in driving forward issues and having voices heard on the global stage.

We also ran numerous other sessions and events across the year: with our distinguished advisors in New York in February; at NASIG in San Juan in March; Sao Paulo in April; Copenhagen in May; Geneva and Brussels in June; Vancouver in August; London in September; Singapore and New Delhi in October; Istanbul and Washington DC in November; and some we have likely missed. You can’t deny that the Internet industry is a global enterprise.

Cracking down on fraud and scams

The wider world is interested in the DNS: not least what part it can play in a larger, global crackdown on fraud and scams. An issue that has been growing in urgency for the past few years has spilled into wider society with seemingly everyone knowing someone who has been personally impacted by an explosion in criminal activity.

The Global Signal Exchange (GSE)

The DNSRF launched our response to that issue - the Global Signal Exchange (GSE) - in October with a full launch in the new year, and we’re excited about it. Google came onboard and has started supplying us and the Global Anti Scam Alliance (GASA) with a firehose of data that we hope will mark the beginning of the end of this new Net scourge. We hope to announce some other big names joining the GSE soon.

TRUSTCHECKER and Industry League Tables

Highlighting what a busy year it’s been, none of the above is what the public was most interested in this year: that was the launch of TRUSTCHECKER - where people can both report suspect domains and see if others have already done so - and our expanded League Tables, where we went industry sector by industry sector highlighting who are the biggest targets in the online world for abuse, and conversely, who’s doing the most about it.

Media and the press

Those efforts were met with a wave of press attention: The Times, BBC Radio, The Express, Evening Standard and a wide range of industry publications. 

Working with partners

And in between, we continue to work with partners old and new across the industry to tackle issues as they arise. We moved into a new HQ in Oxford. We said goodbye to some colleagues and hello to new ones. And we picked up so much additional work that we are booked out until the middle of 2025. 

All in all, it was a rewarding, challenging, exciting, tiring, busy impactful year. We will see you all in the next one.