Registration open for new .au domain names

Anyone with a local connection to Australia (businesses, associations and individuals) is now able to register a new category of domain name – a shorter, simpler version ending in .au rather than .com.au, .net.au etc.

Australian businesses have until 20 September to reserve their .au equivalent domain name, before it becomes openly available to the general public.

The Federal Government’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) said the new category of domain name allows users to register shorter, more memorable online names, however also creates another avenue for cybercriminals to conduct fraudulent cyber activities by registering your .au domain name to impersonate your business.

Reserve your .au equivalent business name now

The ACSC recommends that all Australian businesses with existing domain names register their .au equivalents now, to ensure

About .au domain names

.au is the country code top level domain (ccTLD) for Australia. A domain name ending in .au signifies that the person or organisation using it has a connection Australia.

There are several different namespaces within .au, serving different sectors and purposes and with different rules for who can register them and what name they can have:

'Open' .au namespaces

Open for registration by the public, provided they are eligible. Each serves a specific type of enterprise or purpose. The rules for who can register what names in these open namespaces can be found in .au Domain Administration Rules: Licensing on the .auDA website - www.auda.org.au: • com.au - for commercial entities, such as companies (with ABN/ACN registered through ASIC), and businesses (registered with state governments); • net.au - for commercial entities, such as companies (with an ABN/ACN registered through ASIC), and businesses (registered with state governments); • org.au - for charities and non-profit organisations. • .au direct - launched 24 March 2022, open to anyone with a connection to

Australia; • asn.au - for incorporated associations, political parties, trade unions, sporting and special interest clubs; • id.au - for individuals who are Australian citizens or residents.

'Closed' .au namespaces • These are known as "closed" because they are closed to the general public, and only available to entities within a defined sector: • edu.au - for educational institutions registered at federal or state level; • gov.au - for Commonwealth, state, territory and local government bodies; • csiro.au - for the sole use of the

Commonwealth Science and Industry

Research Organisation (CSIRO).

State and Territory namespaces

Each Australian State and Territory has its own namespace. Registration is currently only open to community groups for use of geographic place names – e.g. bathurst.nsw.au. they are preserved for your use before the public release on 21 September.

You can reserve your .au domain name through an auDA accredited registrar (listed at www.auda.org.au/accredited-registrars).

New and exact matching .au direct names available

Applications opened on 24 March to register: • new .au direct names that are not already registered in the .au registry (i.e. names are not registered in com.au or org.au etc.), available to the public on a first come, first served basis; • the exact match of any existing .au domain name you are the existing registrant of.

These names will be allocated according to the official Priority Allocation Process during the six-month Priority Application

Period to 20 September.

Notes:

Exact matches will be put on Priority Hold for the Priority Application Period to prevent them from being registered by others and to enable existing registrants the first opportunity to register them.

Where there is more than one eligible applicant for the same .au direct domain name - e.g. the owners of healthyevoo.com.au and healthyevoo.net.au are both eligible to apply for healthyevoo.au - the .au direct exact match will be allocated according to the Priority Allocation Process.

Existing .au domain names

Applying to register your matching .au direct name is optional and has no effect on your existing .au domain names. Your existing name in the .au domain will continue to operate provided you keep your registration up-to-date.

Sources and further information: ACSC - www.cyber.gov.au; .auDA - www.auda.org.au.