Information Technology Services (ITS)

Before the first domain attestation process began earlier this year, the university had over a thousand top-level/third-level domains (these are interchangeable terms, both abbreviated “TLD”). TLDs are URLs that look like this: [div/dept/campus/lab/other].utoronto.ca

U of T’s Office of the Chief Information Officer and Office of the Vice-President, Communications led a process to review and verify the inventory of all existing TLDs. The goal is to maintain the quality and credibility of our digital assets and enable a positive user experience. Domain attestation staff work to identify deprecated TLDs for cyber security benefits, navigational improvement and search engine optimization for people searching through our web presence.

The domain attestation process aims to ask people to “attest” for the domains with which they’re associated.

Each TLD has an associated administrative or technical contact—think of this as the "point person” of the domain. These are the people who can tell us more about each domain, so part of the domain attestation process is to contact them and ask them for more information about their associated domains.

The domain attestation team gathers a list of contacts and reaches out via email to request completion of an attestation form about TLDs. The attestation form requests some information including whether the domain is still in use, secured and how it is being used. We also gather information about hosting and content management platforms used on related websites — if there is an associated site.

If you received an email with a link to an attestation form in 2025, it’s because you were listed as the technical or administrative contact in the central database of TLD contacts. However, we recognize that there may be some incorrect or missing information in our database. In November 2025, we completed the first phase of data cleanup, and will be following up with an annual check-up to validate information.

If you believe you’ve received an attestation form in error, of if you have information about the correct contact for a given TLD, please contact Keshav Raina, Administrative Officer (Data Analyst) in Planning, Governance & Assessment: keshav.raina@utoronto.ca

The domain attestation team started out with active contacts for 776 out of the total 1,382 TLDs at the university. Throughout the domain attestation process, they were able to identify contacts for another 261 domains, and they updated incorrect/outdated contacts for 345 domains. The team now has more accurate contact information for 1,037 domains.

The team identified 133 TLDs that are no longer in use and can be deprecated. They received responses from 73 per cent of the contacts they reached out to, and furthermore, they collected information on domain ownership, hosting services used across the university, security certificates and more. Through the attestation process, we’ve significantly advanced our understanding of the university's digital assets, but work needs to be ongoing to keep our data clean.

It’s always great to ask this question, but you can be assured that these requests are legitimate. We've tried to inform as many contacts and stakeholders as possible about this initiative in advance (via email from the university’s Offices of the CIO and VP, Communications) but we recognize that we may not have reached everyone.

If you wish to confirm authenticity, please send a direct message on Microsoft Teams to (or book a virtual meeting with) Keshav Raina, Administrative Officer (Data Analyst).

As the 2025 domain attestation process has now concluded, we plan to share a cleanup report with the community soon in order to let everyone know what has been achieved.

We recognize that some TLDs do not exist simply as live, publicly visible websites. They may have a purpose that the domain attestation team was unable to identify and still be active, maintained and serving some specialized, technical, or internal functions.

Examples include: TLDs that are used in local network environments for device discovery (e.g. printers) or TLDs that simulate domain behaviour for testing and documentation purposes.

Don’t worry! Just because your TLD is found to not have an identifiable purpose does not mean that it will be removed, decommissioned or otherwise compromised in any way. The domain attestation process is not meant to only uncover outdated or expired TLDs, it also aims to collect information more generally about the utoronto.ca web space.

Other goals of the domain attestation process include:

• Updating the contacts on file for domains
• Gathering information on hosting, content management systems, etc.
• Gathering information on security certificates

2025 marks the first time the domain attestation process was undertaken at the university, but it won’t be the last. The attestation process will occur annually to ensure our information is regularly updated.

From a communications perspective, the strength of the globally recognized U of T brand relies on clear and consistent communication across all our interactions with audiences, whether virtual or physical.

From a website development/maintenance perspective, if there are many units using the same hosting or design services, we may be able to identify opportunities for master agreements with vendors to potentially yield better contracts and pricing for all.

Please contact Keshav Raina, Administrative Officer (Data Analyst), PGA or Marden Paul, Director, PGA. You can contact them by email or send a direct message on Microsoft Teams.