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Government URLs that don't end in .gov

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21–30 of 202 posts

Re: Government URLs that don't end in .gov

#22

I’ve always thought it was weird that the Canadian federal government uses canada.ca almost exclusively. You see a lot of https://service-service.canada.ca/sign-up-sinscrire.aspx .ca is open for registration by anyone, and people are used to seeing that TLD. Combine that with the bilingual super long domain names and every once in a while you’ll see a phishing scam like: https://service-service-canada.ca/sign-up-sins…

We do have gc.ca, but I think it’s maybe legacy? https://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/tbsc-fsco/sc-hme.jsp?lang=en... works but servicecanada.gc.ca redirects to canada.ca

Re: Government URLs that don't end in .gov

#23

I think it's particularly interesting that the US use .gov and not .gov.us (as a Brit). I'm sure there are oversights on who can acquire an inherently international .gov domain, but for example here in the UK .gov.uk domains have a strict application process [0] managed by central government. It just seems to me that it would be more secure, and more reassuring to citizens and visitors that they are on the correct si…

My guess is that it’s because the US built the thing, they decided .gov was to be for US Government sites. Then when other countries joined they got their own TLDs, which they added a .gov. to for their own purposes.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/.gov (Which seems to make my guess right, .gov is operated by the US Government)

Re: Government URLs that don't end in .gov

#25

We need a government root CA more than a government TLD. Domain names aren't even the only thing we should attest.

This sounds like a decent idea until you realize that means one of two options: - A US Government controlled CA root preinstalled on computers. Privacy advocates would be in arms. - Constant untrusted CA warnings when trying to access any government site.

Does our CA/browser infrastructure prevent the government from registering a trusted .gov CA instead of a trusted root CA?

Re: Government URLs that don't end in .gov

#27
post #17

I think it's particularly interesting that the US use .gov and not .gov.us (as a Brit). I'm sure there are oversights on who can acquire an inherently international .gov domain, but for example here in the UK .gov.uk domains have a strict application process [0] managed by central government. It just seems to me that it would be more secure, and more reassuring to citizens and visitors that they are on the correct si…

> it's under a cctld that clearly affiliated to and managed by that government. Maybe this is my latent American nationalism showing, but isn't .gov "clearly affiliated to and managed by" the US government? I think this bit was added as an edit or maybe I just missed it: > an inherently international .gov domain .gov is not inherently international for all the reasons in this subthread (and probably others as well)

I don't think thats clear at all. We have three people in this thread already confused on the issue.

I think the poster wasn't talking of the US government but of knowing which government a domain is related to by just looking at it. ".gov" is not clear while ".gov.uk" is clear due to the ccTLD.

> but isn't .gov "clearly affiliated to and managed by" the US government

I would say no. What makes it clear to you?

Re: Government URLs that don't end in .gov

#28
post #12

I got an official email from New York State's Office Of The Comptroller with a link to osc.state.ny.us. It came from an email address @osc.ny.gov. I don't understand why they couldn't use an official TLD in the URL too.

I used to do contracting work for a state government agency (that also owned the .gov and .us domains), and they had rules about what could be hosted on .gov vs. .us that were sufficiently restrictive that I was told on the first day that we only ever deploy things to .us. Perhaps something similar exists for NY, and/or that "rule" was actually federal?

Re: Government URLs that don't end in .gov

#29
Briefly scrolling through the the list for really weird ones and “ war-on-pineapple.com” jumped out at me.

Turns out it’s not a USDA campaign, but is associated with a CISA campaign to explain foreign influence operations focused on divisiveness.

CISA produced a quite good one pager: https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/publications/19_100...

Sadly the domain is inactive, but they helpfully included an archive.org to show some of the additional content (how the CISA director executed a pineapple op on Twitter): https://web.archive.org/web/20190726194709/https:/twitter.co...

And for the record- pepperoni pineapple jalapeño pizza is delicious.

Re: Government URLs that don't end in .gov

#30
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it just that .gov is the US one? Like .com vs. .co.uk (though since it's not actually important that's blurred) or .org vs. .org.uk. Or .edu vs. .ac.uk; .mil vs. .mod.uk. They got there first and just spread over TLDs before consigning other nations to fit under one I suppose.

I was under the impression that the US government controls / owns .gov

Yes, exactly. .gov is US-specific and controlled by the US government.
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