.pw is the

country code top-level domain A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code. All ASCII ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and all tw ...

for the

Republic of Palau Palau, officially the Republic of Palau, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the western Pacific Ocean. The Republic of Palau consists of approximately 340 islands and is the western part of the Caroline Islands, w ...

History

The country code top-level domain .pw was delegated to the Pacific island nation of Palau in 1997. It has since been redelegated a number of times. Directi, a group of technology businesses, obtained exclusive rights over .pw from EnCirca in 2004. From 25 March 2013, domains under the .pw TLD are available to the general public. Since then, it is sometimes marketed as a domain for

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who work (human activity), works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the partic ...

s (professional web). In July 2013 the registry announced that they had passed the 250,000 registration milestone within the first three months, after having 50,000 registered domains in the first three weeks.

Issues

A few months after opening the registry to the general public, .pw became the target of spammers.

Symantec Symantec may refer to: * Gen Digital, an American consumer software company formerly known as Symantec * Symantec Security, a brand of enterprise security software purchased by Broadcom Broadcom Inc. is an American multinational corporation, ...

released two reports in April and May 2013 claiming that domains under .pw TLD were a significant source of

spam e-mail Email spam, also referred to as junk email, spam mail, or simply spam, refers to unsolicited messages sent in bulk via email. The term originates from a Monty Python sketch, where the name of a canned meat product, "Spam," is used repetitively, m ...

. Directi responded that it had zero tolerance for spam and would be deleting domains accused of violating its anti-abuse policy. In 2016, the

Anti-Phishing Working Group The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) is an international consortium focused on providing guidance and collecting data to reduce the risks of fraud and identity theft caused by phishing and related incidents. It was founded in 2003 by a US-based ...

stated that the .cc, .com, .pw, and .tk domain names account for 75% of all malicious domain registrations.

References

External links

*
IANA Delegation Record for .pw
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pw Communications in Palau Country code top-level domains Endurance International Group sv:Toppdomän#P

History

Issues

See also

References

External links