POSTS TAGGED: internet_infrastructure
Burt Kaliski | Oct 18, 2012
I’ve never been all that handy with car engines, although there was a time when I knew how to adjust a carburetor with a screwdriver while the engine was running to keep the car from stalling. (Let’s not get into the time when I thought I knew how to adjust an overheating radiator with the engine running …)
Nowadays, I just turn on the ignition and drive, thinking much more about where I’m going than what’s going on under the hood. That part I leave to the repair shop to take care of.
You might say my experience with automobiles has become driving-centric rather than vehicle-centric.
Internet pioneer and PARC research fellow Van Jacobson made a similar point as this month’s Verisign Labs Distinguished Speaker. Users just turn on the Internet and browse. A URL such as
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zOLrQJ5kbU, once more broadly understood a scheme (“http://”) followed by a domain (“youtube.com”) followed by a path (“watch”) and a query string (“v=3zOLrQJ5kbU”) – a carburetor, a radiator and a transmission, if you will – is now more often seen as a name, a way to refer to an object. User experience, once
protocol- or
communications-centric, has become
content-centric.
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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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Burt Kaliski | Dec 14, 2011
As a technology leader whose career objective is to help build a connected digital world, it’s hard for me to envision a better place to be at this time in Internet history than Verisign.
That’s what I needed to be convinced of earlier this year when I decided to leave a good job with great people at another leading IT company to become Verisign’s CTO. Seven months later, I haven’t been disappointed.
One reason for my enthusiasm is the people. From the Verisign Labs team to the executive leadership, from the technology community to the administrative professionals, I get to work with some of the brightest people in the field. They bring years of experience to the company, working toward common goals.
Another reason is the research. As I shared with Sean Michael Kerner of InternetNews.com recently, Verisign Labs’ research program is motivated by the question of Internet resilience: how to sustain the Internet as a global infrastructure over the long term.
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Danny McPherson | Oct 19, 2011
Verisign recently hosted the “Building a Better Internet Symposium” in Washington, D.C. to mark Cyber Security Awareness Month and honor the winners of four Internet Infrastructure grants, which Verisign sponsored last year in honor of the 25th anniversary of .com. It was a great event with a strong turnout from leaders in policy, business, academia and technology.
For me, the highlight of the event was talking with the four grant winners and hearing them speak to the audience about their research.
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