In response to Verisign's Sitefinder service, the Internet Architecture Board of the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) has made an official statement.
The IETF, a group of scientists, technologists, and corporations responsible for the protocols which make the internet work, including the foundation of the intenet, TCP/IP, and the DNS names that allow you to find a web page named "www.google.com" in your URL bar, is one of the most important technical bodies in the mix of responsible parties who make up what is commonly referred to as the Internet.
The IAB is the review board of that organisation; a group of experts, the best minds and thinkers that the people responsible for the design of the fine machinery that is the Internet's software and protocol implementations.
A comment from these individuals is a vital and valuable milestone in getting ICANN to do something about the actions of Verisign and force a cease-and-desist, at the very least, upon them.
The preliminary findings of the IAB, dated September 20, 2003 and entitled IAB Commentary: Architectural Concerns on the use of DNS Wildcards, provides a relatively high level explanation of the problem, and its effects. While not a pure layman's guide to the problem, it will provide anyone with rudimentary knowledge of the technical details of the internet with enough information to understand the damage this service stands to cause.
