Taiwan NPOs offered free 'green domain' certification to fight phishing

Taipei, Dec. 16 (CNA) Non-profit organizations (NPOs) in Taiwan can now apply for free "green domain" certification for their org.tw websites under a new program launched by the Taiwan Network Information Center (TWNIC) to guard against phishing scams and bolster public trust in online donations.

Some NPOs have been "deeply troubled" because while they rely on public donations, fraud rings have set up fake versions of their websites to scam donors, TWNIC CEO Jofan Yu (余若凡) told CNA in an exclusive interview on Tuesday.

"As a result, all the donations ended up going to the phishing sites," Yu said, adding that such incidents have caused fundraising to decline and their reputations to suffer.

"People will be afraid to click in the future -- even when the real website appears, they won't know whether it's genuine or fake," she noted.

To address those concerns, Yu said TWNIC rolled out a "Digital Trust Enhancement Program for org.tw" on Oct. 20, under which NPOs using org.tw domains can apply for free "green domain" certification.

Supervised by the Ministry of Digital Affairs, TWNIC serves as Taiwan's national internet information center and is currently the country's only NPO responsible for coordinating domain name registrations and IP address allocations.

When an NPO applies for the free program, TWNIC reviews whether the applicant and its org.tw domain match the corresponding NPO registered in Taiwan, including foreign non-profit organizations that have completed registration in Taiwan, Yu said.

If verified, "we then display the result in our lookup system, where it will be clearly marked as a 'green domain,'" Yu said, noting that such labels signal to the public that they can "trust it."

During a test of the system, CNA entered the domain name of an NPO that had obtained "green domain" certification and found that the verification details included a statement that the domain name had passed the "green domain" certification service and that its basic registration information was accurate and complete.

It also included other details, such as the service activation date, the NPO's unified registration number, and its name in both Chinese and English.

As of Tuesday, nearly 100 applications for the program had been received, with a diverse mix of NPOs, including both large organizations and smaller groups, taking part, Yu said.

To further protect NPOs online, TWNIC also offers a free monitoring and alert service, which Yu said has received about 70 applications so far.

Under the service, NPOs can compile a watch list of up to 50 org.tw domains with names similar to their own website, and, with the help of AI, TWNIC scans the domain registry every day and sends alerts whenever it detects potentially impersonating domains.