According to an interview with Dr. Klaus Herzig of the DENIC (German Registry operator) published by DomainConsult, the registry is planning to introduce authorization codes for transfers by the end of the year. The details have not been defined yet. DENIC is set up similar to a cooperative, where all registrars together form the registry. In the past, the time it took to reach consensus between members has sometimes slowed down an implementation of new features.

Generally .DE registrars will require fax from the registrant in order to approve an incoming/outgoing transfer. So in some cases the gaining registrar will just initiate a transfer and not verify the authorization of the person ordering the transfer. Some losing registrars do not require the fax in order to accept an outgoing transfer. In the past, this has lead to domain hijackings of such high-profile domains as google.de and ebay.de . In both cases, DENIC was able to resolve the problem.

[via DomainConsult]