VeriSign bolsters security for .com and .net sites

Network World - More than 95 million Web sites –- including 80 million using .com names and 15 million using .net names –- will have access to new security mechanisms that prevent visitors from being unknowingly sent to phony sites engaged in phishing and pharming attacks.

VeriSign announced Monday that it will meet its goal of supporting DNS Security Extensions -– dubbed DNSSEC -- in the .net and .com top-level domains by March 2011.

DNSSEC uses public key cryptography and digital signatures to allow Web sites to verify their domain names and corresponding IP addresses. DNSSEC prevents hackers from hijacking Web traffic and redirecting it to bogus sites, which are called cache poisoning attacks.

[[How DNS cache poisoning works]]

DNSSEC is viewed as the best way to bolster the DNS against vulnerabilities such as the Kaminsky bug discovered last year. In fact, security researcher Dan Kaminsky recommends widespread deployment of DNSSEC.

VeriSign has been working on DNSSEC deployment with Educause, a non-profit organization that operates the .edu domain for universities and colleges. VeriSign and Educause are hosting a DNSSEC testbed for universities to test the new DNS authentication mechanisms. VeriSign says it will have DNSSEC fully operational on .edu by March.

VeriSign also is working with the U.S. government to deploy DNSSEC on the DNS root servers, which are at the top of the DNS hierarchical system. VeriSign operates two of the Internet’s 13 DNS root server farms.

"Signing the root is in a testbed right now," says Pat Kane, vice president of naming at VeriSign. "We will have a deliberate, pragmatic rollout by July 1. Then the entire DNS root zone across the globe will be signed."

DNSSEC only works properly when it is deployed from the top of the DNS tree –- the root servers -– to the top-level domains such as .com and then by individual domain name holders such as www.idg.com.

VeriSign says its experience in deploying DNSSEC on the DNS root servers and .edu domain is helping the registry prepare to add authentication mechanisms to .com, which remains the Internet's most popular domain. More than 184 million domain names were registered as of mid-2009, and 80 million of those were .com names, according to VeriSign.

"One of the challenges for .com registrars is how to make this as simple as possible," Kane says. "When somebody registers or maintains a domain name, it needs to be seamless and not confusing for them to add DNSSEC. ... People will have to remember to renew their domain name, their SSL cert and now their keys."

Kane says the trickiest part of deploying DNSSEC across .com and .net is allowing domain name registrars -- such as Go Daddy, Network Solutions and Register.com -- to do the key management for their customers.