As of 12/12/2020
.ch, the ccTLD of Switzerland, has extended its contract with SWITCH Information Technology Services. The Swiss Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) stated that the Public Contract Law has been extended for an additional 5 years beginning from January 2022. The new agreement however also brings along with it certain new developments.
The new agreement massively focuses on cybersecurity. The importance for security becomes needful since only 6% of .ch domain names meet Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) standards. What is worrying is that this figure of 6% comes after a 54% increase in the total number of DNSSEC approved .ch domain names in 2019. (DNSSEC is a set of specifications that extends the DNS protocol.) New measures are also brought in place which, in case of fraudulent activity, asks for identity verification of newly assigned domain names,
Started in 1987, just two years after the .com launch, .ch is one of the oldest extensions. .ch has also been popular for its alternative use of being used for names that end in ch. Techcrun.ch is a popular example of this. Interestingly along with managing .ch domain names, the SWITCH group also manages educational networks of Universities, Swiss as well as others.
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