Inside CIRA: How Canada's .ca Registry Became a Global DNS & Cybersecurity Force

David Shipley interviews Jon Ferguson, VP at CIRA, about how the Canadian Internet Registration Authority evolved from early paper-based .ca registrations at UBC into a 142-person, member-based not-for-profit running .ca and authoritative Anycast DNS infrastructure now supporting 550+ TLDs globally. Ferguson explains how .ca's Canadian presence requirements help keep abuse rates low, and how CIRA reinvests surpluses into grants and cybersecurity tools, including Canadian Shield (DNS-based malware/phishing blocking and encrypted DNS with limited data retention) used by about 500,000 people and generating about 20 million blocks per month. They discuss CIRA's focus on municipalities, schools, hospitals, and universities, its move into...