Once again, it looks like the most vigorous area of DNS security discussion at next week's IETF 96 meeting in Berlin may be in the Using TLS in Applications (UTA) working group. As was the case earlier this year at IETF 95 in Buenos Aires, the UTA working group is exploring different options for securing email communication. DNSSEC and DANE both feature to different degrees in some of the proposals.
July 2016 archive
Jul 13
Join the DNS Security team at the IETF 96 Hackathon this weekend…
If you will be in Berlin, Germany, this weekend and are interested in putting your coding or documentation skills to good use in helping make DNS more secure, please plan to join a group of about 20 of us at the IETF 96 Hackathon who will be working on DNS-related projects. The Hackathon is at the InterContinental Hotel from 9:00am – 9:00pm on Saturday, July 16, and from 9:00am – 6:00pm on Sunday, July 17. (You don’t have to be there the whole time – some people come and go.)
NOTE: you do NOT have to be attending IETF 96 to participate in the Hackathon. It is separate – and free – but you do need to register to attend. We welcome other developers in the Berlin area who want to join us during the weekend.
Details can be found on the IETF 96 Hackathon wiki page.
We have a group of 20+ people who will be working on a variety of DNS, DNSSEC, DPRIVE and DANE projects. There are some projects that could use some additional help (including non-coding help such as documentation and user testing). You are also welcome to bring other projects to the Hackathon.
You can see the list of projects and ideas on the IETF wiki hackathon page – although you need to scroll down to find the DNS section.
The GetDNS crew has a number of projects underway, including TLS interfaces, a Universal Acceptance review and RFC5011 testing. Rick Lamb plans to make BIND work with smartcards without patches. I plan to work on the code behind the weekly DNSSEC deployment maps. I’m sure others will bring some projects, too, by the time it begins.
A good group of “DNS people” have now done this for the past several IETF meetings. It’s been a great experience and moved a number of DNS-related projects forward. We would definitely welcome anyone else who wants to join us, even if just for part of the time. Bring your coding and documentation skills and help make DNS better!
P.S. And of course you can also join in with the many other excellent projects happening at the Hackathon, too, including some great work on TLS implementations. We here at Deploy360 just happen to be focused on DNS…
Jul 08
On Being A Light Amidst The Darkness
There is darkness all around us. This week, of all weeks, that is clear.
Young black men shot by police thousands of mile apart - and then five police officers killed in an ambush by an angry assailant seemingly intent on vengance. Police officers, in this case, who were doing their jobs of protecting a peaceful protest against those earlier shootings.
Just a week earlier a bomb exploded at an airport in Istanbul, Turkey killing over 40 people and injuring hundreds more... a terrorist attack at a bakery claimed over 20 lives in Dhaka, Bangladesh... a weekend bombing in a market in Baghdad, Iraq, left close to 300 dead... and bombs rocked three cities in Saudi Arabia, including near a mosque in the holy city of Medina.
Meanwhile tempers flare against immigrants in the UK after the Brexit vote... a U.S. Presidential candidate stokes the fires of fear and hatred... as do similar leaders in European countries... and bombs continue to fall in Syria's civil war...
The list could go on and on...
The divide between "us" and "them" grows stronger... where "them" is really "anyone not like us".
So much anger. So much hatred. So many killings.
There is darkness all around us.
As I struggled to concentrate on my work today, I found a browser window open to a piece written 10 days ago by Umair Haque: The Age of Light. He writes in part:
Dark ages are human creations, remember? The darkness isn’t somewhere “out there”. It’s in us. That is how we choose them, make them, create them.
The true hallmark of a Dark Age is this. We call the darkness the light, and celebrate it, revel in it, seek salvation in it. Darkness isn’t a meteor hitting the earth. It’s a mentality. The impoverishment of the mind, brought on by rage, envy, fear.
No Dark Age thinks it is one. Every Dark Age calls itself an Age of Light. Isn’t that exactly what’s happening across the globe today? As the middle collapses, as people grow poorer, they are regressing. They are literally choosing to go backwards. But that very choice is celebrated on the streets, applauded in the towns, and shouted from the rooftops as great, noble, and wise.
That is all a Dark Age really is.
Institutions crumble, leaders fail, and there is a turn to tribalism, feudalism, conflict, and dynasty.
He goes on... his full article is worth a read.
There is darkness all around us.
In the face of all of this, how, then, do we push back against the darkness?
I don't really know.
Sitting at my desk trying to get work done online today while every site brought more news of the madness...
... I just don't know.
I am reminded again of the powerful words of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.:
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
In a world where so much darkness threatens I think our only solution is for each one of us to be a light.
To ask ourselves each moment: can we be kinder? can we be better? can we help others in some way?
Umair is right - the darkness is within us. We cannot change others - we can only change ourselves and the choices we make.
And while that sounds hopelessly naive and cliche, I see no other way forward.
Or, at least, no other positive way forward.
We seem to have lost some kind of understanding of our common humanity.
Of the fact that all of us have the same basic needs and desires: food, drink, a safe place to live... friends, family... to laugh, to share... to be loved.
Black, white, yellow, pink, red, brown... liberal, conservative or anywhere in between... male, female or something else... we are all breathing the same air and living on the same planet, no matter what language we speak or how we dress or how we look.
We need to rebuild that faith in each other. That trust in each other.
We won't always agree - in fact we may violently disagree - but we need to recognize that even in that worst disagreement we are still... fundamentally... human.
With parents and sons and daughters and wives and husbands and brothers and sisters and friends and partners and...
Each with our own dreams and desires for the future...
We must believe in that. And we must bring that belief within us.
And we must act in that capacity. Deeds, not words, as they say.
And through our actions maybe, just maybe, we can be a beacon of hope for others.
It will not be easy. We will fail. Repeatedly. But this week reminds us that we must keep trying.
We must be the light.
Or else darkness wins.
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