How does ICANN's New gTLD Program affect my SSL certificate?

In 2011, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) launched the New gTLD Program. In 2012, public and private organizations applied for new generic top-level domain names (gTLDs). Instead of about two dozen TLDs, such as .com and .org, there could soon be hundreds.

The New gTLD program could affect you if you request an SSL certificate for an intranet name, such as .local or .intranet, that is pending registration as a new gTLD. If ICANN approves the new gTLD, you must provide further validation to prevent revocation of the certificate.

In other words, if you request a certificate for an intranet name that you do not own, we will be forced to revoke it per ICANN's guidelines.

For more information, see the New gTLD Domains section of this ICANN document.