POSTS TAGGED: dnssec
Burt Kaliski | Mar 28, 2012
My visits to my alma mater over the years have often provided an opportunity for reflection, whether on technology or life in general. Some structures remain central and constant for decades, like infinite corridor passing through the main part of campus. Others adapt and change over time, like the “temporary” Building 20, the “magical incubator” on whose site the Stata Center - home of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory - now sits.
It was fitting therefore that I began my talk last month at MIT CSAIL with some observations on my career path since MIT. The companies I’ve worked for have changed, and the internet even more so, over more than two decades. But my focus on helping build a connected digital world, expressed in various technology areas, has remained constant. So has the importance of research and of collaborating with leading academic institutions such as MIT.
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Sean Leach | Jan 27, 2012
If I could describe DNSSEC in one word, it would be "important." Another word that often describes it though is "complex."
What is DNSSEC and why is it so important and complex? Well, DNS, as you may know, is a little known (but absolutely critical) technology. It enables connections on the Internet by translating the better known domains we all use to the IP addresses that get us to the pages we want. Without DNS, the Internet doesn't work. Cryptography has a similar lack of visibility, but is also absolutely critical. When you mash the two of them together, you get Domain Name Security Extensions, commonly called DNSSEC.
DNSSEC provides a manner of guaranteeing that an answer from the global DNS is the correct answer - which as you can imagine is pretty important (i.e. if I type in the domain for my bank's website, I sure hope the IP address my browser goes to is of the intended bank, not some nefarious middle man trying to steal my data. This is what DNSSEC helps solve). I say DNSSEC is complex because there are terms associated with it like "zone signing," "key rollover," "algorithm strength," "data enumeration," etc. That's a LOT of terms to know just to be able to have a secure domain.
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Chris Melissinos | Jan 13, 2012
Passing my first year mark with Verisign, I thought it would be interesting to gather some thoughts from last year and discuss what I am looking forward to in 2012. With that, let’s recap, shall we?
Moving to Verisign was an interesting period of transition for me. Much of my professional life has been focused on the development, marketing, and evangelism of technology; specifically, technology that has a demonstrable impact on the user experience or application. While I have been involved in building large scale systems for critical infrastructure, I had yet to work at a company that operated such systems. Working for Verisign has opened my eyes to the considerations one must have when in such an environment.
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Danny McPherson | Sep 23, 2011
February 3, 2011 came and went without much fanfare, but it was a milestone for Internet stakeholders, whether they knew it or not. On that Thursday, the last available Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPV4) addresses were allocated by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Though some Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) have a reasonable inventory of IP addresses that could last another year or two, the days of “new” IPv4 address allocations are largely over.
Now that we’re out of IPv4 allocations, it’s time to get serious about adopting the next generation of Internet Protocol, IPv6. With a 128-bit address space (compared to IPv4’s 32-bit space), IPv6 can accommodate the ongoing and exponential growth of the Internet, which currently is adding about a million new devices every hour. In fact, compared with the 4.3 billion IP addresses that IPv4 allows, IPv6 will enable another 340 trillion, trillion, trillion addresses -- enough to accommodate global Internet demand for the foreseeable future.
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