ICANN launches initiative promoting internet security best practices

LOS ANGELES – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has launched a new initiative called the Knowledge-sharing and Instantiating Norms for DNS and Naming Security (KINDNS) for a safer and more secure internet for users.

ICANN hopes that by working with a global community of technical experts and corporate partners the KINDNS will provide a framework for Domain Name System (DNS) operational best practices. "As the Internet has grown and come to play a greater role in our everyday lives, DNS security has never been more critical," ICANN's Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer John Crain said. "While various best practices exist for DNS operations, they are inconsistently applied and at times have led to significant security breaches that affect the whole Internet."

To that end KINDNS is a collaboration with the community to share those practices that can be easily adopted by both large and small DNS operators. “For example, a good practice shared through KINDNS aims at ensuring domain name servers are geographically and topologically diverse (KINDNS Practice-5 of Authoritative and Recursive servers operators),” ICANN wrote in a statement. “Another example is to encourage operators to enable Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC), both through Authoritative server signatures and the Resolver validating these signatures.”

ICANN has invited ISP’s, DNS service operators, corporate IT managers and other stakeholders to participate and adopt KINDNS best practices and promote the program.

For more information you can visit the KINDNS website at  https://kindns.org/.