DNSSEC News: VeriSign, NeuStar and others team on DNS security

Momentum continues to build for rapid deployment of DNS encryption mechanisms.

Seven leading domain name vendors -- representing more than 112 million domain names or 65% of all registered domain names -- have formed an industry coalition to work together to adopt DNS Security Extensions, known as DNSSEC. Members of the DNSSEC Industry Coalition include: VeriSign, which operates the .com and .net registries; NeuStar, which operates the .biz and .us registries; .info operator Afilias Limited; .edu operator EDUCAUSE; and The Public Interest Registry, which operates the .org registry.

DNSSEC prevents hackers from hijacking Web traffic and redirecting it to bogus sites. The Internet standard prevents spoofing attacks by allowing Web sites to verify their domain names and corresponding IP addresses using digital signatures and public-key encryption.

The coalition is "a really good and public statement by all of the members that we believe that DNSSEC is vital to securing the stability and trust of the Internet, and we will do everything we can as members to get the technology in place and get our zones signed," says Rodney Joffe, senior vice president and senior technologist for NeuStar.
DNSSEC is viewed as the best way to bolster the DNS against vulnerabilities such as the Kaminsky bug discovered this summer. It's because of threats such as these that the U.S. government is rolling out DNSSEC across its .gov and .mil domains.

Source: VeriSign, NeuStar and others team on DNS security, Carolyn Duffy Marsan, Network World , 12/09/2008, Retreived from networkworld.com/news/2008/120908-dns-security.html on 12/10/2008