SOURCE: Public Interest Registry

December 03, 2008 10:30 ET

Industry Coalition Announced to Increase Adoption of Domain Name Security Extensions (DNSSEC)

DNSSEC Industry Coalition Forms to Streamline Implementation Across Domain Name Registries

RESTON, VA--(Marketwire - December 3, 2008) - The DNSSEC Industry Coalition is a global group of registries and industry experts whose mission is to work collaboratively to facilitate adoption of Domain Name Security Extensions (DNSSEC) and streamline the implementations across Domain Name Registries. Members work together to establish a consistent set of tools and applications, shared best practices, specifications and shared nomenclature. DNSSEC Industry Coalition members include both generic Top-Level Domain and country code Top-Level Domain registries along with industry and educational experts of the Domain Name System.

".ORG, The Public Interest Registry initiated this coalition to encourage industry collaboration and streamline implementations for early widespread adoption of DNSSEC," says Alexa Raad, CEO of .ORG, The Public Interest Registry. "Encouraging the adoption of needed upgrades to the DNS infrastructure in the interest of the greater good is a core part of the .ORG mission."

In the Coalition members are gathered from across the industry to facilitate adoption and share best practices. Coalition members include Top-Level domain registries of .ORG, The Public Interest Registry, the .org registry operator; Afilias Limited, the .info registry operator; .SE (the Internet Infrastructure Foundation), the .se registry operator; EDUCAUSE, the .edu registry operator; Nominet, the .uk registry operator; VeriSign, Inc., the .com, .net, .tv, and .cc registry operator; and NeuStar, Inc., the .biz and .us registry operator. The coalition is also supported by industry security experts such as Shinkuro, Inc.; NL Net Labs; Internet Society; Kirei AB; and Secure64 Software Corporation. With DNSSEC, Internet users know that their Internet-based communications such as web site visits and email correspondence actually connect to the parties they intend to reach. DNSSEC thwarts attacks such as pharming, cache poisoning, and DNS redirection that have been used to commit fraud, distribute malware, or steal personal or confidential information. For more information on DNSSEC, please visit http://www.dnssec-deployment.org.

"The DNS is the place where an attacker has the most leverage and DNSSEC could have a significant impact on thwarting attacks to the many and varied applications that use the DNS and the infrastructure itself," says Paul Mockepetris, the founder of the Domain Name System and Chief Scientist and Chairman of the Board of Nominum, Inc. "Digital signature technology is profoundly important to the future of the DNS, and having industry experts work together to test DNSSEC in production is the only way to reduce theory to practice."

Membership to the DNSSEC Industry Coalition is open to domain name registries and industry securities experts. Hailing itself as an action oriented group, it seeks organizations willing to contribute and support the widespread adoption of DNSSEC. For more information on the DNSSEC Coalition, please visit http://dnsseccoalition.org.

About .ORG, The Public Interest Registry

Trusted across all ages, backgrounds and nationalities, .ORG is where people turn to find credible information, get involved, fund causes and support advocacy. .ORG, The Public Interest Registry empowers the global noncommercial community to use the Internet more effectively and, concurrently, takes a leadership position among Internet stakeholders on policy and related issues. The .ORG domain is the Internet's third largest "generic" or non-country specific top-level domain with more than 7 million domain names registered worldwide. .ORG, The Public Interest Registry, was founded by the Internet Society in 2002. It is based in Reston, Virginia, USA.