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Sep 17
4 More Days To Submit Speaking Ideas For DNSSEC Workshop At ICANN 48
Will you be attending the ICANN 48 meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in November 2013? If so, you have four more days to submit a speaking proposal for the DNSSEC Workshop planned for Wednesday, November 20, 2013. I wrote about the call for speakers earlier but since that time the program committee decided to extend the proposal deadline to this Friday, September 20, 2013. (We received feedback that people were still returning from summer holidays and our original deadline was too close to that.
We have a great line up of speakers so far, including some excellent folks to give us updates on DNSSEC in Latin America, but we still have room for a few more proposals. The Call For Participation is included again below, along with the email address to which to send your ideas.
Thanks – and we’ll see you in Buenos Aires!
The DNSSEC Workshop program committee, of which I am a member, is seeking speakers for sessions on:
- DNSSEC activities in Latin America
- The operational realities of running DNSSEC
- DNSSEC and enterprise activities
- When unexpected events occur
- Preparing for root key rollover
- DANE and other DNSSEC applications
- DNSSEC automation
- Guidance for registrars in implementing DNSSEC
- APIs between registrars and DNS hosting operators
In this session, we are particularly interested in hearing from people who have found (or developed) solutions for automating their implementation of DNSSEC. We are also very interested in hearing from registrars given that the 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) with ICANN will require ICANN-accredited registrars to at the very least support the acceptance of DNSSEC records from registrants.
The full “Call for Participation” is below that provides more details. If you have an idea for a presentation, please send a brief 1 or 2 sentence description to dnssec-buenosaires@shinkuro.com which will reach the whole program committee. (Please send email rather than leave a comment here.)
We already have some solid speakers who have indicated their interest and so we’re very much looking forward to another excellent session. I’ll also note that the ICANN meetings are free to attend – you have to register but there is no cost. You just have to pay for your travel and expenses to get to Buenos Aires. The DNSSEC Workshop will also be streamed live over the Internet for those wishing to watch/listen and will be archived for later viewing.
These workshops are really excellent technical sessions. I would encourage you to attend if at all possible and I would definitely encourage you to submit a proposal to speak. We’re always interested in hearing new perspectives.
Call for Participation — ICANN DNSSEC Workshop 20 November 2013
The DNSSEC Deployment Initiative and the Internet Society Deploy360 Programme, in cooperation with the ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC), is planning a DNSSEC Workshop at the ICANN meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 20 November 2013. The DNSSEC Workshop has been a part of ICANN meetings for several years and has provided a forum for both experienced and new people to meet, present and discuss current and future DNSSEC deployments. For reference, the most recent session was held at the ICANN meeting in Durban, South Africa on 17 July 2013. The presentations and transcripts are available at: http://durban47.icann.org/node/39749.
We are seeking presentations on the following topics:
1. DNSSEC Activities in Latin America:
For this panel we are seeking participation from those who have been involved in DNSSEC deployment in Latin America, but also from those who have not deployed DNSSEC but who have a keen interest in the challenges and benefits of deployment. In particular, we will consider the following questions: What can DNSSEC do for you? What doesn’t it do? What are the internal tradeoffs to implement DNSSEC or not?
2. The Operational Realities of Running DNSSEC
Now that DNSSEC has become an operational norm for many registries, registrars, and ISPs, what have we learned about how we manage DNSSEC? What’s best practice around key rollovers? How often do you review your disaster recovery procedures? Is there operational familiarity within your customer support teams? What operational statistics have we gathered about DNSSEC? Are there experiences being documented in the form of best practices, or something similar, for transfer of signed zones?
3. DNSSEC and Enterprise Activities
DNSSEC has always been seen as a huge benefit to organizations looking to protect their identity and security on the Web. Large enterprises are an obvious target for DNS hackers and DNSSEC provides an ideal solution to this challenge. This session aims to look at the benefits and challenges of deploying DNSSEC for major enterprises. Topics for discussion:
* What is the current status of DNSSEC deployment among enterprises?
* What plans do the major enterprises have for their DNSSEC roadmaps?
* What are the benefits to enterprises of rolling out DNSSEC validation? And how do they do so?
* What are the challenges to deployment for these organizations? Do they foresee raising awareness of DNSSEC with their customers?
4. When Unexpected DNSSEC Events Occur
What have we learned from some of the operational outages that we have seen over the past 18 months? Are there lessons that we can pass on to those just about to implement DNSSEC? How do you manage dissemination of information about the outage? What have you learned about communications planning? Do you have a route to ISPs and registrars? How do you liaise with your CERT community?
5. Preparing for Root Key Rollover
For this topic we are seeking input on issues relating to root key rollover. In particular, we are seeking comments from vendors, ISPs, and the community that will be affected by distribution of new root keys.
6. DANE and Other DNSSEC Applications
The DNS-based Authentication of Named Entitites (DANE) protocol is an exciting development where DNSSEC can be used to provide a strong additional trust layer for traditional SSL/TLS certificates. There is strong interest for DANE usage within web transactions as well as for securing email and Voice-over-IP (VoIP). We are seeking presentations on topics such as:
* What are some of the new and innovative uses of DANE in new areas or industries?
* What tools and services are now available that can support DANE usage?
* How soon could DANE become a deployable reality?
* How can the industry used DANE as a mechanism for creating a more secure Internet?
7. DNSSEC Automation:
For DNSSEC to reach massive deployment levels it is clear that a higher level of automation is required than is currently available. Topics for which we would like to see presentations include:
* What tools, systems and services are available to help automate DNSSEC key management?
* Can you provide an analysis of current tools/services and identify gaps?
* Where in the various pieces that make up DNSSEC signing and validation are the best opportunities for automation?
* What are the costs and benefits of different approaches to automation?
8. Guidance for Registrars in Supporting DNSSEC:
The 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) for Registrars and Resellers requires the support of DNSSEC beginning on January 1, 2014. We are seeking presentations discussing:
* What are the specific technical requirements of the RAA and how can registrars meet those requirements?
* What tools and systems are available for registrars that include DNSSEC support?
* What information do registrars need to provide to resellers and ultimately customers?
We are particularly interested in hearing from registrars who have signed the 2013 RAA and have either already implemented DNSSEC support or have a plan for doing so.
9. APIs Between the Registrars and DNS Hosting Operators:
One specific area that has been identified as needing focus is the communication between registrars and DNS hosting operators, specifically when these functions are provided by different entities. Right now the communication, such as the transfer of a DS record, occurs primarily by way of the domain name holder copying and pasting information from one web interface to another. How can this be automated? We would welcome presentations by either registrars or DNS hosting operators who have implemented APIs for the communication of DNSSEC information – or from people with ideas around how such APIs could be constructed.
In addition, we welcome suggestions for additional topics.
If you are interested in participating, please send a brief (1-2 sentence)
description of your proposed presentation to dnssec-buenosaires@shinkuro.com by **Friday, 06 September 2013**
We hope that you can join us.
Thank you,
Julie Hedlund
On behalf of the DNSSEC Workshop Program Committee:
Steve Crocker, Shinkuro
Mark Elkins, DNS/ZACR
Cath Goulding, Nominet UK
Jean Robert Hountomey, AfricaCERT
Jacques Latour, .CA
Xiaodong Lee, CNNIC
Russ Mundy, Sparta/Parsons
Ondřej Surý, CZ.NIC
Lance Wolak, .ORG, The Public Interest Registry
Yoshiro Yoneya, JPRS
Dan York, Internet Society
Sep 16
Google Confirms Having IPv6 And IPv4 Will NOT Cause Duplicate Content Issues For Search Ranking
Great to see Google’s Matt Cutts formally confirming what many have us have assumed all along – that making a website available over both IPv6 and IPv4 would not bring about a “duplicate content” issue that would incur penalties in search engine ranking. The question Matt answers is:
As we are now closer than ever to switching to IPv6, could you please share info on how Google will evaluate websites. One website being in IPv4, exactly the same one in IPv6 – isn’t it considered duplicate content?
Here’s Matt’s response saying that there won’t be an issue:
If this was a reason you were hearing for NOT moving to IPv6, consider it addressed… why not get started today with making your sites available over IPv6? We’ve got a number of IPv6 resources available for you, including these:
- Tutorial: Making Content Available Over IP
- Video: How To IPv6-Enable ANY Website Using A Content Delivery Network (CDN)
and many more! (And if you can’t find what you need, please let us know! We’re here to help you make the move to IPv6!)
Sep 16
FIR #721 – 9/16/13 – For Immediate Release
Sep 16
FIR #721 – 9/16/13 – For Immediate Release
Sep 13
Watch LIVE Now – Jan Zorz at UKNOF Talking About Best Current Operational Practices (BCOP)
Curious to learn about efforts to capture best current operational practices (BCOPs) from network operators around the world? In the next 15-30 minutes, our colleague Jan Zorz will be speaking on this topic at the UK Network Operators Forum. The live stream can be viewed at:
http://uknof.bogons.net/uknof26.html
Jan’s slides are also available online. From the UKNOF 26 agenda, here is the abstract of what Jan will be speaking about:
There is an opportunity to better identify, capture, and promote best current operational practices documents emerging from various regional network operators’ groups. We believe sharing these documents across the globe would benefit the wider Internet community and help more operators deploy new technologies like IPv6 and DNSSEC faster and easier.
In addition, there is an opportunity to improve communications between the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standards making process and operators around the globe. We believe standards could be better designed and implemented if more operators that actually use them in their real-world networks agreed on what they need and provided more feedback into the RFC process within the IETF.
In this presentation, Jan Zorz from the Internet Society Deploy360 Programme will discuss options on how to start answering three specific questions:
- Would operators benefit from documenting the best current operational practices in different regions and globally?
- What might be the best path forward to closing these communication gaps and creating such a document repositories?
- Do you agree that there is a communication gap between the IETF and real-world network operators?
Many operators need down-to-earth information on how to fix their current issues and how to implement new technologies coming out of the IETF. How can the Internet Society help facilitate this work?
Sep 12
FreeBSD 10 To Include OpenSSH With DNSSEC Support (for SSHFP records)
Very cool news out of the FreeBSD team yesterday… the upcoming FreeBSD 10 will include support in OpenSSH for DNSSEC. The key point is this:
This means that OpenSSH will silently trust DNSSEC-signed SSHFP records.
What this means is this: when you go to ssh into an unknown system (i.e. one that is not in your “known_hosts” file), OpenSSH will do a query for a SSHFP record and use DNSSEC validation to ensure that the SSHFP record is indeed the one that the domain operator wants you to use.
This process of using a SSHFP record was defined in RFC 4255 back in 2006. If you are familiar with how ssh (a.k.a. “secure shell“) works, when you connect to an unknown system for the first time you are presented with the “fingerprint” of the public key of the server to which you are connecting. In theory you could verify this fingerprint through some out-of-band mechanism (perhaps seeing it on a web page or having received it separately in an email). In practice, the vast majority of people just hit enter/return or type “yes” or something like that.
In the RFC 4255 mechanism, the operator of the server would publish a SSHFP record in DNS that would have the fingerprint of the SSH public key. This is the same key fingerprint that would normally be presented to a user. By using DNSSEC to sign the DNS zone that includes the SSHFP record, the server operator can provide a method for a DNSSEC-validating SSH client to verify that the SSH fingerprint is in fact the one that should be used to connect to the server.
This creates a higher level of trust and security in SSH connections.
It’s great to see this added to FreeBSD 10, which, according to the FreeBSD Release Engineering page, should be available sometime in November 2013.
For those curious, the SSHFP record is similar to what was defined six years later in RFC 6698 for the DANE protocol, which is really no surprise as they share a common author, Jakob Schlyter. DANE’s TLSA record is a bit more complex and, for instance, allows for the inclusion of a complete SSL/TLS certificate rather than just a fingerprint. In both cases, though, the idea is the same – use a DNS record to provide a means to verify a public key, and use DNSSEC to provide integrity protection so you know that you can trust the DNS record.
Great to see this being rolled out in an enabled state. Kudos to the FreeBSD team for doing this!
Sep 12
TDYR #035 – WiFi Cafés And Shaking Up The (Home) Office Routine
Sep 11
“Impact IPv6″ Aims To Expand IPv6 Usage Throughout Cameroon
How will IPv6 improve Internet capabilities in Cameroon? In a recent post on our main Internet Society blog titled “Preparing Cameroon for the future“, Victor Ndonnang speaks about part of the rationale for the work he and a team of people are doing as part of the “Impact IPv6″ project:
‘Imagine, in the next two, three or five years, when more of the people of Cameroon have the ability to connect to the Internet, and we can’t, because the Internet is “full”!’ says Ndonnang.
With funding from an Internet Society Community Grant, Victor and his colleagues have trained over 100 people and already have several local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) working with IPv6, with more committing to do so soon. As noted in the article:
… engineers and managers from Cameroon’s National ICT Agency have been trained through the project and are now working to activate a National IPv6 Task force transition. If the trend continues, the country will build its new technical infrastructure based on the latest internet protocol technology, making national networks far better prepared for growth.
It is incredibly inspiring to read of the work of the group in the Cameroon and we hope that it will serve as an inspiration for other regions who are looking to bring Internet access to more people. If those new networks can be planned from the start with IPv6, they will be so much more successful in the future!
Congratulations to Victor and his colleagues… and we look forward to hearing of their continued success!
P.S. You, too, can apply for an Internet Society Community Grant - the next deadline is October 1, 2013! Read more about the community grants application process and submit your idea today!
Sep 10
TDYR #034 – Initial Thoughts On Apple’s iPhone 5c, 5s Announcement
Sep 09
