Internet Raises the Bar for Hackers

At this week’s computer security conference, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers “ICANN” announced an upgrade to the Internet infrastructure, a major security improvement since the introduction of the World Wide Web (www).

To bolster the security of the global Internet, ICANN, along with the U.S. Department of Commerce and VeriSign (News - Alert) Inc., has added security at the top of the domain name system (DNS) – the technical infrastructure behind the Internet’s “phone book” - to protect Internet users from certain forms of online fraud.

“A cyber criminal can steal your money or your personal data without you even knowing it. Cyber crime doesn’t respect national boundaries,” said Rod Beckstrom, President and CEO of ICANN. “This upgrade will help disrupt the plans of criminals around the world who hope to exploit this crucial part of the Internet infrastructure to steal from unsuspecting people.”

With the Internet’s pervasive role in daily life expanding rapidly, finding viable solutions to cyber crime is imperative. Deployment of Domain Name System Security Extensions, or DNSSEC, at the “root” of the Internet has laid the foundation for a new generation of innovative cyber security solutions by creating a global authentication platform - a common source of trust in the validity of Internet addresses.

Once fully deployed, DNSSEC will help prevent criminals from redirecting users to fake websites that can be used to perpetrate cyber crimes, according to ICANN.  However, DNSSEC is not an antidote to all Internet security problems. And it does not ensure confidentiality of data or protect against denial of service or many other attacks, ICANN said. In that case, common sense is still the best way to protect yourself online.

“DNSSEC is not a silver bullet to stop every cyber crime. But it will have a real and positive impact on the security of the Internet. This is one important step forward in the fight against cyber crime,” asserted Beckstrom.

The DNS is where all Internet addresses are stored, and the unique nature of those addresses is fundamental to ensuring that computers around the world can speak to each other. Working silently in the background, the DNS is consulted up to a trillion times each day by the world’s 1.8 billion Internet users. By using sophisticated public key cryptography, DNSSEC increases trust in the integrity of that process.

As reported in the media, Beckstrom held a press conference at Black Hat 2010 with Dan Kaminsky, the hacker and now a computer security expert, who found a fundamental flaw in the existing DNS, to explain the change.The system is not perfect, Kaminsky admitted, but will raise the bar for hackers seeking to exploit the system. Kaminsky is now a chief scientist at Recursion Ventures based in New York City.