Domain name server (DNS) poisoning isn't just a scary phrase, it's a scary reality. Malicious hackers have found weaknesses in the DNS system and are using this knowledge to inflict malware and financial reverses on legitimate domain name owners. An innocent, unknowing potential customer can type the domain name of one of these legitimate companies into the address bar and be whisked away to a website in competition with the legitimate site, or find themselves on a site capable of infecting them with a virus.

A security protocol named "Domain Name Security Extension" (DNSSEC) exists that can thwart these search hijackers, but as of this writing only a few county code top-level domains and the US Federal government have availed themselves of the technology. No one should be surprised to find the USA, Sweden and Puerto Rico among these early implementers of cutting-edge technology, but the inclusion of Brazil, Bulgaria and Turkmenistan might turn a head or two.

Turkmenistan has the good fortune to own a two-letter country code that is particularly suited for trademark owners, Dot-TM. In spite of the fact that Turkmenistan was inhabited principally by desert nomads until after the Second World War and a republic of the Soviet Union until 1991, the country realized it had an excellent opportunity to make money off an unexpected resource. They have gone the rest of the country code top-level domain-world one better by signing up for a extended version of DNSSEC. Unlike the other domain extensions that have gone in for DNSSEC, a compromised domain name with the Dot-Tm extension can instantly provide a new digital fingerprint to the domain administrator foiling the malefactor mere seconds after discovering and identifying the problem.