<<Print>>

As part of efforts to combat cybercrime and ensure adequate security on the internet, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is about to roll out the cryptographic keys that would help secure the Internet’s Domain Name system (DNS) in October this year.

Africa is a key area for ICANN and they are raising awareness of the key so that Network operators using DNSSEC –validating resolvers don’t get locked out.

This will be the first time the new system has been changed since it was initially generated in 2010.

It is an important security step since if internet service providers (ISP) do not have this new key, the internet will not work for them.

The Vice President of ICANN’s Stakeholders engagement for the African Region, Pierre Dandjinou in an interview explained that the changing of the key is an important step in keeping the global DNS safe and secure and that it is very much in line with commonly accepted operational practice that ensure that important security infrastructure can support changing password if the need were to ever arise.

He said ICANN has launched a testing platform so that network operators can make certain that they are ready for the key roll well ahead of October 11 adding that the testing platform can be accessed at :https//go.icann.org/ksktest . 

He said Internet users should also contact their ISP or network operators to make certain they are ready for the key change.

He advised network operators to ensure they have their software updated, have enabled DNSSEC and verify that their systems can update their keys automatically or have processes in place manually updated  to the new key by UTC on 11th October 2017.