ICANN has announced that majority of top level domains in the root have DNSSEC and the overall implementation of the DNS Security Extensions has surpassed 50 percent milestone.
Described as one of the biggest security upgrade to Internet’s security infrastructure, DNSSEC enables systems to verify that the information received from a DNS server hasn’t been tampered with while in transit and is the same information that the registrant had sent out.
Sr. Program Manager, DNSSEC at ICANN revealed in a blog post that the 50 percent milestone has been achieved after a long list of efforts comprising of development of protocols to secure DNS, early deployment by security-conscious TLDs (e.g., .se), public vulnerability disclosures, government requirements, support from ISPs and DNS operators including Google, DNSSEC deployment at the root level by an international team among others.
Lamb notes that there is still a long way to go before end users and content providers will be able to fully benefit from the security. “Without widespread deployment by Registrants on their domain names, end users and content providers cannot benefit from all of the security, and new and innovative opportunities that DNSSEC will bring”, notes Lamb.
ICANN seeks help from ISPs, registrars, DNS operators, vendors and other organisations to enable wider adoption of DNSSEC.
