ICANN Initiative Promotes Internet Security Best Practices

Community of technical experts will work together to ensure a safer and more secure Domain Name System

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is launching the Knowledge-sharing and Instantiating Norms for DNS and Naming Security (KINDNS) initiative to make the Internet safer and more resilient for all users. By collaborating with a global community of technical experts, ICANN is developing a clear framework of operational best practices for Domain Name System (DNS) security.

KINDNS is just one of many ICANN efforts underway to promote broad participation among public and private actors to make the Internet safer, and more secure and interoperable.

"As the Internet has grown and come to play a greater role in our everyday lives, DNS security has never been more critical," said John Crain, ICANN's Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. "While various best practices exist for DNS operations, they are inconsistently applied and at times have led to significant security breaches that affect the whole Internet."

To mitigate this, ICANN collaborated with the technical community to create KINDNS as a mechanism to share best practices to better secure DNS operations. The result is a simple, effective framework that large and small DNS operators can voluntarily and easily follow. For example, a good practice shared through KINDNS aims at ensuring domain name servers are geographically and topologically diverse (KINDNS Practice-5 of Authoritative and Recursive servers operators). Another example is to encourage operators to enable Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC), both through Authoritative server signatures and the Resolver validating these signatures. DNSSEC is a technology developed to assure that Internet users reach their desired online destination by helping to prevent some types of attacks (KINDNS Practice-1 of Authoritative and Recursive servers operators).

Internet service providers, corporate IT managers, DNS service operators and software developers are invited to adopt the best practices promoted by KINDNS on its website and help promote the program. To learn how, visit the KINDNS dedicated website here.

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About ICANN

ICANN's mission is to help ensure a stable, secure, and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet, you need to type an address – a name or a number – into your computer or other device. That address must be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a nonprofit public benefit corporation with a community of participants from all over the world.