ICANN has temporarily taken the TAS application system for new generic top level domains (gTLDs) offline due to a “technical glitch.”  According to ICANN, a technical problem allowed a limited number of users to view other users’ file names and user names.  To protect the applicants’ data, on April 12, 2012, ICANN took the application system offline until the problem is resolved.  Two weeks later, the TAS system still remains offline.  ICANN claims that it has narrowed the pool of affected applications and the associated posted documents and hopes to reopen the system on April 27, 2012.

ICANN is projecting that the technical difficulties will result in a postponement of the scheduled announcement of applied-for domain names (April 30/May 1, 2012).  However, ICANN has not yet announced whether further delays will result to the launch proposed schedule. With “Reveal Day” scheduled for May 1, 2012 and the initial evaluation period commencing on June 12, 2012, it seems likely that additional postponements are inevitable.

More information about the TAS interruption can be found here.