ICANN Tests SAML System With FBI and Interpol for Urgent Non-Public WHOIS Data Requests

ICANN has begun testing authentication mechanisms with the FBI and Interpol to allow law enforcement agencies to submit urgent requests for non-public WHOIS domain registration data. The preferred technical approach uses Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) to authenticate designated law enforcement personnel into ICANN's Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) when investigating imminent threats to life, serious bodily injury, critical infrastructure, or child exploitation. Once a request is filed through RDRS, ICANN routes it to the relevant domain registrar, which has 24 hours to evaluate standard requests or up to 72 hours for complex queries, while retaining the authority to deny requests that fail to meet the urgency criteria. To prevent large agencies from overwhelming registrars with high request volumes, ICANN plans to require agencies to nominate specific authorized personnel and enforce permissions via tokens shared during SAML handshakes. Representatives from domain registrars Verisign $VRSN and Namecheap expressed support for the proposal during ICANN's annual meeting in Bali, Indonesia, while separate policy groups within ICANN will later finalize acceptable use rules and privacy protections for requesting officers.