The following are the outputs of the captioning taken during an IGF virtual intervention. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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>>VENI MARKOVSKI: Hi, everyone, this is Veni Markovski, ICANN's vice president for U.N. engagement based in New York. I'm happy to inform you about what's been happening at ICANN between the previous MAG meeting and today.
So COVID-19 has made remote engagement even more crucial and a very real and practical alternative. In fact, one could say that the infrastructure we had in place is now serving as a lifeline to us all during these times, and we are now innovating how we use our technology to further enhance our virtual engagement.
ICANN Org continues to work in fulfilling its mission and staying in touch with all stakeholders and closely working with the supporting organizations and the advisory committees. ICANN Board also continues to work in the appropriate time frame on its operational priorities. We continue to be engaged in capacity development. We continue to provide wider capacity building programs on the Domain Name System of the DNS and its security, or DNSSEC, with a special focus on the needs of the developing countries in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia.
Capacity development across the ICANN ecosystem remains a key priority. We had two seminars -- webinars, rather, the Domain Name System in the Time of COVID-19, a Technical Perspective. We had focused outreach to all regulators to get them familiar with ICANN's remit governance and core values, so we had two webinars organized and more are coming. We also had an information vetting to the U.N., one face to face in January and another one, a virtual one in April. The success of the virtual meeting and its reach are now being taken into consideration along with the survey we did among the diplomats, 160 participants.
We're also working on a joint UNESCO and ICANN webinar on universal acceptance and IDNs, the policy development fundamental cause, and DNS fundamentals cause.
ICANN is active on all levels of the IGF, global, regional, and national. We actively support and participate in the dialogue and initiatives presented through these forums.
An example of some Internet governance activities we are currently working on with our partners and will be participating in include EuroDIG from 10th to 12th of June virtual; SEEDIG, 22-23rd of September, confirmed for the moment. ICANN Public Meetings are an essential part of ICANN's multistakeholder model because the meetings provide a venue for advancing policy work, conducting outreach, exchanging best practices, conducting business deals, and interacting with members of the ICANN community, Board and staff.
So we have the first virtual meeting due to COVID-19 pandemic, ICANN67, which had 1,752 attendees, 65 sessions, 130 countries or territories represented, and 93-point-half session hours. Icann.org also had a response to the DNS abuse which happened in the time of COVID-19. The role of the ICANN community, board, and organization in maintaining a secure, stable, and unified Internet has always been important, but at this time when reliance on the Internet has skyrocketed, our collective role has become all the more vital.
ICANN's response to DNS abuse is always multifaceted, reflecting the need to address abuse within the constraints of ICANN's bylaws and policies as defined by the ICANN community and by obeying local law and regulatory requirements.
In general, ICANN contractual compliance enforces the contractual obligations set forth in ICANN's policies and agreements, including the Registry Agreement and the Registrar Accreditation Agreement. The office of the Chief Technology Officer, or OCTO, provides subject matter expertise and the Global Domain Division, GDD, works with the contracted parties to help support the delivery of registry and registrar services in accordance with contractual and consensus policy obligations.
Additionally, team members from OCTO joined both the COVID-19 Cyber Threat Coalition and the COVID-19 Cyber Threat Intelligence League along with hundreds of researchers from private companies and law enforcement officers from several countries. These groups share valuable threat information focused on the response to the pandemic on the cyber realm.
ICANN68 is coming soon. We have prep week sessions taking place between 8th and 18th of June, so when you see that message, we'll be actually in the midst of it.
So overall, that's what we've been doing at ICANN, and I hope that we will be able to interact in the coming days virtually, and I am looking forward to the IGF and hopefully to see you soon.
Thanks, everyone.