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Standard For Securing Domain Name System Nears Finalization
November 11, 2003
An international standards body is close to releasing a security mechanism for authenticating data moving across the Internet, making it more difficult for people dispensing spam, viruses and worms to remain anonymous.
DNS-Sec, which stands for domain name system-security, is under development by the Internet Engineering Task Force, which expects to release the spec this winter. The technology is undergoing final testing by several IETF member organizations. "The IETF has not found any problems, so far, in any of the test beds, so it looks good," Patrik Faltstrom, a consulting engineer at Cisco Systems Inc., said. Faltstrom is on the IETF committee developing the standard.
DNS-Sec, which has been under development for about a decade, places a digital signature on each domain name and corresponding IP (Internet protocol) address stored in a DNS server.
A browser requesting the IP address of a domain name, such as www.mycompany.com, would need technology defined in the spec for verifying that it's getting the right address for the domain name, making it difficult for spammers and virus distributors to use bogus address headings.
More details at: http://www.internetweek.com/security02/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=16100056
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