The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is the subject of substantial controversy in the United States, and the domain name industry is squarely in the middle of the debate. Many DNS service providers and technology developers in the industry oppose SOPA, Afilias among them. Here's why.

The Internet is slowly beginning to adopt the new DNSSEC domain names standard, but significant challenges remain. That was the main takeaway from a four-hour workshop on the technology held during the recent ICANN 41 public meeting in Singapore, which heard from many domain registries, registrars and other infrastructure providers.

I recently wrote about the encouraging level of DNSSEC adoption among top-level domain name registries, and noted that adoption at the second level and in applications is an important next step for adding more security to the DNS. The root and approximately 20 percent of the top level domains are now signed; it is time for registrars and recursive DNS servers operated by the ISPs to occupy center stage.

Less than nine months after the DNS root was signed, the rollout of DNSSEC across the Internet's top-level domains is approaching the tipping point.

SAN FRANCISCO – Feb. 10, 2011 – Afilias Limited, a global provider of Internet domain name registry and Domain Name System (DNS) services, today announced that it has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Crowell & Moring LLP. Under this MoU, Afilias and Crowell & Moring will extend their current working relationship into supporting new top-level domains (TLDs).

DNSSEC is being rolled out quickly in top-level domain registries around the world, but there's still some way to go to encourage other Internet stakeholders to adopt the new security technology. That was one of the key takeaways from a day-long, comprehensive session on Domain Name System Security Extensions implementation worldwide, held during ICANN's public meeting in Cartagena, Colombia, last week.

Deployment of Domain Name System Security Extensions Enhances global security for India

NEW DELHI – 9 November 2010 – Afilias, a global provider of Internet infrastructure services, today announced that it has enabled Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) for the .IN country code top-level domain (TLD) for the country of India, improving global security for this domain which houses over 700,000 .IN domains. .IN was officially signed on November 4, 2010 and its Delegation Signer (DS) records are expected to be entered into the DNS Root by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) shortly, allowing the .IN zone to be validated using DNSSEC.

.AG, .BZ, .HN, .LC, and .VC are the next top-level domains to be signed with Domain Name System Security Extensions

DUBLIN, IRELAND - 13 October 2010 - Afilias, a global provider of Internet infrastructure services, today announced that it has enabled Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) for five country code Top-Level-Domains (ccTLDs) in Latin America and the Caribbean region. The ccTLDs whose zones have been secured by DNSSEC include: .AG (Antigua and Barbuda), .BZ (Belize), .HN (Honduras) .LC (St. Lucia), and .VC (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines). These TLDs were officially signed by Afilias on October 5, 2010.

Within the last year or two, I've heard people express an opinion to the effect that if the domain name industry put as much focus on preventing distributed denial of service attacks as we have on implementing DNSSEC, the Internet would be a safer place.

While there may be a grain of truth there, I suggest that this kind of thinking presents us with something of a false dichotomy.

DDoS attacks are indeed a pernicious problem, and one with which companies increasingly find themselves having to deal.

Recognized for Excellence in Registry Services for DNSSEC and Anti-Abuse efforts

DUBLIN, IRELAND – 24 September 2010 - Afilias, a leading provider of Internet infrastructure services and the registry provider for the .INFO domain, has been awarded a 2010 Excellence in Registry Services award from the Online Trust Alliance. Afilias was recognized on Thursday, September 23rd at the Online Trust Alliances' fifth annual 2010 Excellence in Online Trust Awards in Washington D.C. for its innovative leadership role in online safety initiatives over the past year.

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