City upgrades website to .gov, dropping .org

NORWALK, Conn. — The City’s website has transitioned from “.org” to “.gov.”

“The City of Norwalk made the decision to switch to .gov because .gov domains are reserved exclusively for U.S. government entities and provide a clear and trusted indication to the public that the website they are visiting is an official government website and not a fake or malicious site,” Mayor Harry Rilling said in a news release. “Additionally, .gov domains are subject to stricter requirements and security standards, which will help prevent cyber-attacks and protect sensitive government information.”

No surprise here: visitors to the website are likely to be confident that they’re visiting a government website with the new domain name, as .gov is exclusively granted to U.S.-based government entities. Likewise, recipients of City emails should be confident they’re being contacted by a government employee.

The news release explains:

“The .gov domain has top-level security features that are not available to the .org domain. Transitioning from a .org to a .gov domain enhances the credibility and authority of the City’s website and increases the level of security and reliability of data and information.

“The .org website and emails will remain operational to the public until further notice, as all emails addressed to .org email addresses and website searches to the City’s Norwalk.org website pages will automatically be redirected to the .gov website and email domains.

“All City of Norwalk employees with a .org email address domain will have the same letters at the beginning of their new .gov email address (for example: [email protected] would be [email protected]).”

Reminder:

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For more information, go here.