Due to security considerations and international precedents, the State Secretary for Digitalisation and Kingdom Relations, Alexandra van Huffelen, has made a principle decision to opt for the government domain extension ‘.gov.nl.’
A single secure government domain extension will enable citizens and businesses to more easily distinguish genuine government websites from fraudulent ones. Before implementing a single secure government extension, an implementation test will be conducted to assess the financial and organisational impact. This will allow the Council of Ministers to make an informed decision on its adoption this year.
Abroad, government extensions have been in use for some time, with the extension .gov.<followed by the country code> being the most common. Currently, 75 countries operate with such a domain name extension. For instance, the United Kingdom uses gov.uk, Portugal has gov.pt, and recently, the extension was introduced in Poland (gov.pl), Greece (gov.gr), and the Czech Republic (gov.cz).
Government internet domain register
In addition to the uniform domain name extension, the government is developing the Government Internet Domain Register (Register Internetdomeinen Overheid or RIO), where citizens can quickly verify the authenticity of government websites. A preliminary version of the register was launched at the end of 2023, featuring websites of the Central Government. In 2024, the register will be expanded to include websites of other government institutions. User research will also be conducted to explore how the government can best support citizens with inquiries about government websites.
