[kictanet] Fraud at KENIC?

Fri Jan 26 16:37:45 EAT 2018

@Ngigi

You are so on point! I hope KENIC takes your suggestions seriously as
they prepare for round two. I particularly like your second point on
weeding out bots. Like in all auctions in this country, there needs to
be a refundable deposit. 

Thanks Sydney for raising these concerns. I believe the discussions
have shown KENIC where the gaps are, and the second round will not
experience these challenges. 

Best regards

Githaiga, Grace

On Friday, 26-01-2018 at 15:09 Ngigi Waithaka via kictanet wrote:

Ali, 

Same here. And uptodate no communication on how my bids went :-(

And having looked at this system its unfortunately a very basic
auction system. A couple of comments though:

First and foremost, even in premium domains, they each need to be
graded at different levels depending on their anticipated value. No
point starting ni.ke [1] at Ksh 7990, you will just waste time with
everyone who trying their luck.

Two, to weed out Bots and non-serious users & corruption, anyone
bidding on the very least should put up a refundable-deposit of at
least the registration fee and / or the minimum bid value,whichever is
higher.

Three, based on above no anonymous buyers would be entertained and/or
encouraged.

Four domains that are not successfully auctioned should be clearly
marked as such and a decision on whether to be re-auctioned at a later
date or conversion to general availability made to the public *prior*
to this being done.

Five, before we complicate the auction process even further trying to
understand auction software, why not just pack these domains  up,
each as an individual product and put them up on eBay who have a
tried, tested & open auction system with all the features we require?

Regards

On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 12:06 PM, Ali Hussein via kictanet  wrote:

Abdalla

Thanks for the prompt response.

As a person who personally bid for a number of Premium Domains I'm
gratified that you are taking measures to weed out Bots from the
system. This is good. 

I'm eagerly awaiting for ROUND II! :-)

Regards

Ali Hussein

Principal

Hussein & Associates

Tel: +254 713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim [2]

13th Floor , Delta Towers, Oracle Wing,

Chiromo Road, Westlands,

Nairobi, Kenya.

Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are
purely mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of
the organizations that I work with. 

On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 12:02 PM, Abdalla  wrote:

Dear Ali,

Questions to KeNIC have been answered in-line, red font, below.

Thank you.

 Kind regards,

Abdalla Omari.
Chief Executive Officer

On Jan 26, 2018, at 10:44 AM, Ali Hussein via kictanet  wrote:

@Kennedy

You got that right. The auction is not connected to the main core
registry system.

In the scheme of things we ought to commend KeNIC and the CA
(Communication Authority) for responding promptly to issues of public
interest. This can only improve their engagement and performance in
relation to the public. I wish I could say the same regarding the team
behind the eCiziten Portal.

@Sidney you raised a pertinent issue on possible fraud and leakage.
Mine is to ask for clarification from KeNIC on this issue.

1. Was anyone who bid and won a domain denied it and given to someone
else

All bid winners were communicated to, asked to confirm their interest
and follow up by making payments directly to the KeNIC account and
send proof of payment to the Finance team. Only 12 domains have been
paid for and registered as communicated earlier.

2. Since we know no system in the world is 100% full proof it would be
good to get an assurance from KeNIC on what happens next. 

All names that have not been paid for will be released for auction and
the date of the 2nd auction will be communicated. We are coming up
with stringent procedures for the next auction.

@Barrack, I applaud your bringing to attention the privacy angle.
There’s zero excuse for someone to peddle a document with personal
information the way this document was circulated. Respect of personal
privacy is an important matter in today’s world. Even as we wait for
a bill to address this I urge us to play a personal role in this and
exercise self regulation.

Regards 

Ali Hussein
Principal
Hussein & Associates
+254 0713 601113 

Twitter: @AliHKassim
Skype: abu-jomo
LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act
but a habit."  ~ Aristotle

Sent from my iPad

On 26 Jan 2018, at 10:15 AM, Kennedy Aseda via kictanet  wrote:

Harry,

1. Why would the second level domain system, supposedly not hosted on
the parent system (am assuming hosted elsewhere), cause an outage or
cause the main pre-existing database system of third level domains to
crash, like what was witnessed.
_I think the system KeNIC is referring to here is the auction system -
not the registry itself._

Thereafter, when auction closed; my understanding from the two
communications is that the bulk deletion from the registry of the SLDs
that were reserved but not paid for caused erroneous deletion of
nameservers from the registry database.

Kennedy.

On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 9:11 AM, Harry Delano via kictanet  wrote:

Hey Abdalla,

Thanks for the attached response, have gone through it. Some queries
still linger:-

1. Why would the second level domain system, supposedly not hosted on
the parent system (am assuming hosted elsewhere), cause an outage or
cause the main pre-existing database system of third level domains to
crash, like what was witnessed.

2. How foolproof, or what measures were taken to ward off rigging or
'defective' bids in the system. A cursory look at the list of bidders,
if at all authentic seems to indicate most of those email addresses
are foreign, and very few of them on the local . KE domain space. How
ironical..?

3. It almost sounds incredulous that one bid reached  KES
1,000,0000,038. Would love to look forward to when that gets paid up,
please keep us posted..

Harry

On 26 Jan 2018 08:23, "Abdalla via kictanet"  wrote:

Dear Listers,

Attached, please find the official response from KeNIC. This
attachment needs to be read alongside the statement issued on 19th
January 2018, on this list.

Thank you.

 Kind regards,

Abdalla Omari.
Chief Executive Officer

On Jan 24, 2018, at 3:23 PM, Sidney Ochieng  wrote:

Look forward to reading it. You should consider circulating it widely
as this PDF is been shared in other forums as well

On 24 January 2018 at 15:06, ceo via kictanet  wrote:

Dear Sidney,

I have read your email.

I am preparing a detailed response to the allegations you have raised.

As Barrack has stated, it seems you have been misinformed on how the
process conducted.

Thank you.

Regards,

Abdalla

On Jan 24, 2018 2:03 PM, Barrack Otieno via kictanet  wrote:

>
> Hi Sidney,
>
> There is a lot of misinformation and disinformation regarding this
issue. I have been involved in such processes locally and across the
border and most often this is the outcome of domain auction processes
especially where premium domains are concerned. As is the case in the
domain name industry, software is used to conduct auctions once the
necessary policies have been put in place. Auctions such as these
ellicit global interest including mischievous characters who are a
handfull to deal with from a policy and technical perspective. Even
the most advanced and technically equipped companies around the world
are caught flatfooted from time to time. 
>
> I would suggest that we debate the issue based on facts and not
insinuations. Let us also be wary of sour grapes.
>
> Best Regards
>
> On Wed, Jan 24, 2018 at 1:27 PM, Sidney Ochieng (princelySid) via
kictanet  wrote:

>>
>> Listers,
>> So remember when the domain name system went down? Allegedly there
was something untoward happening... KENIC has a lot to answer for
>>
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>>

>
>
>
> -- 
> Barrack O. Otieno
> +254721325277
> +254733206359
> Skype: barrack.otieno
> PGP ID: 0x2611D86A
>  
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>

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policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for
reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled
growth and development.