Dublin, Ireland - 29 October 2009 - Afilias, a global provider of Internet infrastructure services, today announced that Matt Pounsett, a lead member of the Afilias Content Propagation and Resolution Services team, has been selected as a board member of the DNS Operations, Analysis, and Research Center (OARC). 

The DNS-OARC is an organization that provides a platform for the DNS operations community to share information and data.  It also measures performance and traffic load data to provide short and long-term analysis in order to learn and develop remedies to attacks and other problems affecting the DNS.

“Ensuring the stability of the DNS is essential to continuing the communication, e-commerce, and business channels that have become imperative to today’s societies,” said Mr. Pounsett.  “I am excited to be able to provide my expertise from Afilias to ensure that the DNS remains reliable, secure, and resilient.”

Mr. Pounsett recently joined Afilias in 2009 and helps manage Afilias’ DNS infrastructure which supports nearly 10% of the Internet, including 15 Top Level Domains as well as Afilias’ Managed DNS Services customers.

About Afilias
Afilias is a global provider of Internet infrastructure services that connect people to their data. Afilias' reliable, secure, scalable, and globally available technology supports a wide range of applications including Internet domain registry services, Managed DNS, and services in the RFID and supply chain market with its Afilias Discovery Service.

###

Afilias' Brian Cute and Greg Aaron will be on the panel discussing E-crime and Malicious Conduct in the DNS at the first Internet Governance Forum USA conference.

• ‹ previous
• 37 of 45
• next ›

New service provides continuous monitoring and emergency response for your Web site

DUBLIN, IRELAND – 15 September 2009- Today Afilias, a leading provider of Internet infrastructure services, announced the availability of SiteCertain, a new add-on feature to its Managed DNS Services. SiteCertain enables Afilias Managed DNS customers to add web server monitoring, content monitoring and IP address fail-over to their Managed DNS account, to ensure the reliability and uptime of their Web sites.

“Customers using the Afilias DNS network already have 100% reliability guaranteed for managing their DNS. Now with SiteCertain, customers can add the peace of mind of knowing  they will always have an emergency failover plan to handle a variety of scenarios, such as web server failures or problems with properly loading content, that would preclude customers from reaching their website,” said John Kane, Vice President of Corporate Services for Afilias.

SiteCertain monitors customer Web servers continuously from over 40 locations worldwide. It dynamically updates DNS records from up to nine additional back-up IP addresses so that domain names can always point to a functional server. SiteCertain also checks for user specified page content, so not only are customers certain that their pages are loading, but that they are appearing exactly as they should, without errors.

Customers can manage their SiteCertain settings through the Afilias Managed DNS Web interface, including specifying IP fail-over addresses, monitoring intervals, verification of Web page content, and email or SMS notification/alerts. A variety of price plans are available for Afilias Managed DNS customers to add SiteCertain to their existing DNS account.

About Afilias Managed DNS Services
Afilias’ state of the art DNS network ensures security and resiliency through a diverse architecture that no other service provider can replicate. Its multi-layered, tiered design uses multiple hardware and software solutions, multiple bandwidth providers, and is dispersed across numerous geographic locations, ensuring no single points of failure and 100 percent uptime guaranteed. Afilias’ DNS network is further strengthened by supplemental external DNS support that augments Afilias’ own resolution systems. Afilias’ system also supports DNSSEC.  To learn more about Afilias’ Managed DNS Service and all of the new service features please visit: www.afilias.info/dns
    
About Afilias
Afilias is a global provider of Internet infrastructure services that connect people to their data. Afilias’ reliable, secure, scalable, and globally available technology supports a wide range of applications including Internet domain registry services, Managed DNS, and services in the RFID and supply chain market with its Afilias Discovery Services.

Experienced registry operator offers technical and other assistance for new top-level domain applications to ICANN

DUBLIN, IRELAND – 26 August 2009 – Afilias, a global provider of Internet infrastructure services and domain name registry technology, today announced that it is seeking to partner with a select number of organizations that wish to apply to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for a new top-level domain (TLD).

 

“Afilias has supported more successful ICANN bids, and helped launch more new TLDs than any other registry services provider,” said Hal Lubsen, Chief Executive Officer at Afilias.  “We are looking for organizations, corporations, and communities who can leverage our experience, financial and marketing resources, and technology to develop successful generic and community TLDs in English or other languages for Internet users around the world.”

TLDs are the names at the top of the DNS naming hierarchy, appearing after the last ‘dot’ of a Web address such as .com, .info, .org, and .me. With ICANN’s new application process expected to launch early in 2010, the opportunity exists for any organization to apply for a TLD that has meaning for their business, community, or interest area.

"New TLDs are excellent opportunities for brands looking to boost their global profile and offer a more personalized and branded experience on the Internet.  A dedicated TLD may also provide a more private, controlled, and secure space for customer and community interaction,” added Roland LaPlante, Chief Marketing Officer at Afilias.  “Organizations that are connected to specific communities and causes may also look at a dedicated TLD as a new means of offering value added services or a potential new source of revenue.”

Afilias supports over 14 million registrations across 15 TLDs, and has the widest range of TLD customers of any major registry services and outsource technical providers.  Afilias launched .INFO, the first new TLD ever chosen by ICANN, in 2001.  Since then, Afilias has built .INFO into the most successful new TLD ever launched with over 5 million domains registered -- more than double the next leading new gTLD.  

Afilias' has pioneered many innovations in registry technology, including the first broad scale use of the now industry standard EPP-protocol, the first launch of IDN’s under the new standard, and the largest deployment to date of Domain Name Security Extensions (DNSSEC). In addition, Afilias is a leader in domain name anti-abuse operations and policies to curb spam, phishing, and malware. Afilias currently provides registry and outsourced technical services for the following TLDs:  .info, .org, .aero, .asia, .mobi, .ag, .bz, .gi, .hn, .in, .lc, .me, .mn, .sc, and .vc.

Organizations, corporations, and communities looking to work or partner with Afilias for their new TLD bid and application, can submit their interest directly to Afilias online.

About Afilias
Afilias is a global provider of Internet infrastructure services that connect people to their data. Afilias’ reliable, secure, scalable, and globally available technology supports a wide range of applications including Internet domain registry services, Managed DNS, and RFID supply chain services.

###

Redwood City, CA – August 10, 2009 – In an enlightened example of cooperation among competitors to improve online security, Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) today announced that Afilias and Neustar, Inc. are working with ISC to support ISC’s DNSSEC Look-aside Validation (DLV) registry by providing secondary DNS service for the DLV zone. 

DLV is a mechanism that provides many of the benefits of DNSSEC (short for DNS Security Extensions), enabling domain holders to secure their domain information today in advance of broader DNSSEC deployment and adoption. DLV, announced as a service by ISC three years ago, is provided at no charge to participants.

“As a leading domain name registry and DNS provider who is implementing DNSSEC for .org, the largest zone to be signed to date, we are committed to both stable DNS and widespread adoption of DNSSEC.” -Ram Mohan, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Afilias.

Experts agree that establishing a secure global DNS is an imperative, not an option. DNSSEC is a set of extensions to DNS that provide origin authentication of DNS data, data integrity and authenticated denial of existence.  DNSSEC requires significant infrastructure changes and has highlighted political issues that have delayed its widespread deployment.

As a result of the increasing awareness regarding DNSSEC following numerous documented DNS attacks, ISC has recently seen a threefold increase in participation by domain holders.  Along with this growth comes the additional responsibility to achieve 100 percent DLV uptime.

“Having run the F-root nameserver for many years, ISC has a proven record of reliable DNS nameservice,” stated Michael Graff, DLV Program Manager for ISC.   “Adding Afilias and Neustar as secondary DNS providers for the DLV zone demonstrates our collective understanding that DLV is a vitally important production service bigger than any single provider in the same way that there are 13 root server operators, not just one.”

“DLV is an important step in improving DNS security, along with recent announcements we’ve made to accomplish the same goal,” said Rodney Joffe, senior vice president and senior technologist at Neustar. “We’re pleased to participate with ISC in an effort to hasten the day that all online consumers can trust in a secure DNS infrastructure.”

Widespread DNSSEC deployment is gaining momentum.  The .org and .gov domains, as well as many country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs)such as .se and .nl, are now signed.   However, full implementation will not be possible until all of the top level domains (TLDs) – such as .com, .net and .edu – and the root zone itself are signed.  These milestones are expected to be at least a year away. DLV means that DNS administrators are not dependent on others to get the full benefit of DNSSEC for their own portion of the Internet name space today.

“As a leading domain name registry and DNS provider who is implementing DNSSEC for .org, the largest zone to be signed to date, we are committed to both stable DNS and widespread adoption of DNSSEC,” said Ram Mohan, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Afilias. “We fully support the move to a more secure DNS infrastructure and are pleased to be able to provide secondary DNS service to ISC’s efforts around DLV.”

About ISC
Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) public benefit corporation widely known for world-class Internet software engineering and network operations. ISC produces only open-source software, of which BIND and ISC DHCP are the two best-known examples. Our emphasis is on Internet core technology. Our widely-imitated Managed Open Source process ensures the quality of this software while keeping it completely open and available. ISC operates high-reliability global networks of DNS root servers (F-root) and authoritative DNS servers (SNS@ISC) both for non-profit and for commercial enterprises. ISC is also very involved in ongoing Internet protocol and standards development, particularly in the areas of DNSSEC and IPv6. ISC is supported by donations from generous sponsors, by program membership fees, and by specific fees for services. For program or donation information, please visit our website at http://www.isc.org.

About Neustar
Neustar (NYSE: NSR) solves complex communications challenges and provides market-leading, innovative solutions and directory services to enable trusted communication across networks, applications, and enterprises around the world.

About Afilias
Afilias is a global provider of Internet infrastructure services that connect people to their data. Afilias’ reliable, secure, scalable, and globally available technology supports a wide range of applications including Internet domain registry services, Managed DNS, and services in the RFID and supply chain market with its Afilias Discovery Services.

DUBLIN, IRELAND - July 30, 2009 - Afilias, a global provider of Internet infrastructure services, today announced that its DNS network, which supports approximately 10 percent of the Internet's domain names, is secure from the recently announced BIND 9 vulnerability that could cause a denial of service (DoS) attack against DNS name servers. Afilias‘ network and customers are protected by its DNS diversity strategy, which avoids single points of failure like sole reliance on a single DNS resolution software such as BIND.

"Afilias has a fundamental security strategy in place across our DNS operations that integrates diversity at every layer of our infrastructure. Most critical to this strategy is ensuring diversity in DNS software," said Ram Mohan, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. "An organization can build bigger hardware or expand its geographic footprint, but by running a single type of DNS software, whether open source or proprietary, they will always be completely vulnerable to zero day exploits like the one revealed this week with BIND."

Afilias' DNS network runs both BIND and NSD, two popular, proven and open source DNS resolution software brands. Running both software products synchronously ensures that Afilias can simply remove one from production while it is patched or upgraded, ensuring seamless DNS resolution and 100 percent uptime. The same cannot be said of systems using a single flavor of software, whether open source or proprietary.

The BIND security vulnerability announced by ISC on July 28^th, enables an attacker to send a specially crafted Dynamic Update request that can crash a DNS name server. All organizations running BIND 9 are required to upgrade their version to 9.4.3-P3, 9.5.1-P3 or 9.6.1-P1. Afilias has already upgraded its version of BIND.

"Afilias supports large scale domains like .INFO and .ORG as well as our Managed DNS business, and serves billions of queries daily. Our DNS diversity strategy ensures that our network was never in jeopardy, and that the 15 million domain names we are responsible for were always accessible online," add Mohan.

Afilias has also published a new white paper entitled "5 Dimensions of Diversity: A Winning Strategy for Securing your DNS" which details its guidelines for how organizations can deploy diversity in their DNS networks to improve their security and reliability. The white paper can be downloaded at: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/162397/dns-diversity-whitepaper

About BIND

Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND) is the industry standard software for domain name resolution services. In active service for over 20 years, BIND has survived the rapid expansion of the Internet and become more widely deployed than any other DNS software. As open-source software, unlike proprietary solutions, its code has been scrutinized, tested and battle-hardened by hundreds or thousands of programmers over the years.

About Afilias

Afilias is a global provider of Internet infrastructure services that connect people to their data. Afilias' reliable, secure, scalable, and globally available technology supports a wide range of applications including Internet domain registry services, Managed DNS, and services in the RFID and supply chain market with its Afilias Discovery Services.

The .ORG Registry continues its commitment to bolstering the future of Internet security

Reston, VA - July 22, 2009 - .ORG, The Public Interest Registry (www.pir.org) announces today the achievement of key milestones with Domain Name Security Extensions (DNSSEC). PIR is dedicated to transparency in its implementation and sharing lessons learned with the Internet infrastructure community, with the goal of widespread adoption of DNSSEC. DNSSEC is a very important starting point that will allow companies to evaluate how to secure the many applications that are intertwined with DNS.

"DNSSEC is a critical part of our mission to lead the upgrade of Internet infrastructure and ensure online safety for current and future generation of users," says Alexa Raad, CEO of .ORG, The Public Interest Registry. "We are committed to lead the way and demonstrate the feasibility of this important security measure for the rest of the industry."

Key Milestones for DNSSEC within the .ORG Domain include:

• .ORG was successfully signed with DNSSEC on June 2, 2009

• The .ORG key was pushed to the Interim Trust Anchor Repository (ITAR) on June 26, 2009 and picked up by the DNSSEC Look-Aside Validation (DLV) on July 6, 2009.

• Successful manual insertion of DNSSEC data for 18 domains in the Friends & Family phase

• The first scheduled Zone Signing Key (ZSK) rollover was successfully completed on July 2, 2009.

PIR has a successfully signed 18 domains that will be tested in a controlled environment during its Friends & Family phase. PIR will work closely with each domain holder through every phase of the testing to mitigate risks and capture lessons learned prior to the scheduled 2010 full production launch.

"We are happy to be PIR's technical provider in its DNSSEC enablement, ensuring that .ORG is a pioneer in improving Internet security not only for .ORG site owners, but for the billions of people who visit their sites daily," said Ram Mohan, Executive Vice President and CTO at Afilias.

 

 

 

CAPTION: Alexa Raad, CEO of .ORG, The Public Interest Registry and Ram Mohan, CTO and EVP of Afilias provide a brief video statement on the need for Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) in the community and their dedication to widespread adoption and deployment within the Domain Name industry.

About Domain Name Security Extensions (DNSSEC)

With DNSSEC, Internet users know that their Internet-based communications such as web site visits and email correspondence actually connect to the parties they intend to reach. DNSSEC thwarts attacks such as pharming, cache poisoning, and DNS redirection that have been used to commit fraud, distribute malware, or steal personal or confidential information. For more information on DNSSEC, please visit http://pir.org/dnssec.

About .ORG, The Public Interest Registry Trusted across all ages, backgrounds and nationalities, .ORG is where people turn to find credible information, get involved, fund causes and support advocacy. .ORG, The Public Interest Registry empowers the global noncommercial community to use the Internet more effectively and, concurrently, takes a leadership position among Internet stakeholders on policy and related issues. The .ORG domain is the Internet's third largest "generic" or non-country specific top-level domain with more than 7 million domain names registered worldwide. .ORG, The Public Interest Registry, was founded by the Internet Society in 2002. It is based in Reston, Virginia, USA.

Afilias is a Silver Level Sponsor of the 17th Annual Network & Distributed System Security Symposium.

Afilias Managed DNS Services will be exhibiting at the ad:tech New York event.

Afilias will be showcasing its Managed DNS Service at booth #435.