July 30th, 2009
Ending DNS abuse with European open source
A collection of European Internet insiders have announced OpenDNSSEC, a project aimed at managing the security of domain names on the Internet.
The group notes that DNS caches are no longer secure, and a white paper says the automated checks will make the creation of secure zones automatic, combining DNS records and digital signatures.
Sponsors are in Europe include the English registry Nominet, NLnet Labs of the Netherlands, the Internet Infrastructure Foundation .SE in Sweden, the Swedish Kirei AB consultancy, SIDN, which maintains the .NL Netherlands domain, and SURFnet, which handles the same country’s university network, and English DNS consultant John Dickinson.
Secure domain name abuse is one of the main tools hackers have for getting past security systems, and making domains tougher to forge is something that is devoutly to be wished. The announcement of OpenDNSSEC follows an Internet Engineering Task Force meeting in Sweden.
The poisoning of DNS cache has become commonplace since Dan Kaminsky demonstrated how the DNS security model is flawed two years ago.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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