Internet’s Little Black Book Gets a Tighter Lock

WASHINGTON, July 16, 2010 – A group of government bodies and other entities with deep ties to the internet on Friday afternoon announced that they have taken additional steps to better protect internet users against cache poisoning and other cyber attacks.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration and National Institute of Standards and Technology said they have completed an initiative with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and VeriSign to enhance the security and stability of the Internet.

The announcement confirms complete deployment of a security technology — Domain Name System Security Extensions — at the Internet’s authoritative root zone, which is the address book of the internet.

A main goal of this action — DNSSEC deployment at the root zone – is to facilitate greater DNSSEC deployment throughout the rest of the global DNS hierarchy.

“The Internet plays an increasingly vital role in daily life, from helping businesses expand to improving education and health care,” said Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling. “The growth of the Internet is due in part to the trust of its users – trust, for example, that when they type a web site address, they will be directed to their intended web site. Today’s action will help preserve that trust. It is an important milestone in the ongoing effort to increase Internet security and build a safer online environment for users.”

The Domain Name System is a critical component of the Internet infrastructure that’s essential to internet use.  For example, notes the NTIA, it is vital that users reach their intended destinations on the Internet and are not unknowingly redirected to bogus and malicious web sites.