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Writing on the Comcast Voices blog, Comcast manager of DNS engineering Chris Griffiths shares his experience at the recent ICANN key signing ceremonies, where he served as a backup crypto officer.  Griffiths also noted:

With all this momentum, several key top-level domains have also announced recently they are ready to support DNSSEC. The first was .ORG. The other major top-level-domain was .EDU. As these large Domain registries start to support DNSSEC, it allows domain holders like Comcast to sign our domains and make them secure.

Comcast maintains a DNSSEC information center with regular updates on its deployment progress, and it is a member of the DNSSEC Industry Coalition.  With more than 14 million high-speed Internet customers, it is one of the largest Internet service providers in the U.S.

With so many TLDs deploying DNSSEC in recent weeks, more sites are trying to track deployment progress. In addition to this Initiative’s table showing TLD deployment and the Xlerance worldwide map of DNSSEC deployment, Wikipedia’s list of Internet top-level domains now includes a DNSSEC column that indicates “yes” or “no” for each domain’s DNSSEC status, with color-coding for easy visibility, as seen below:

Entries cover generic top-level domains as well as country-code top-level domains. This list is not currently up-to-date, but the DNSSEC Deployment Coordination Initiative will be working to share information to make the listing complete and accurate.

Afilias has announced it will deploy DNSSEC across it registry platforms, signing 13 top-level domains, a move it says is “increasing DNSSEC deployment among domain registries by 50 percent.”  DNSSEC will be deployed first in the .info domain in September, with Afilias-supported TLDs in Asia, the Latin America/Caribbean, and Europe to follow.

The effort, dubbed “Project Safeguard,” will upgrade registries and DNS infrastructure to support DNSSEC and create a year-long across registrar training initiative focused on implementing DNSSEC in registrar-registry transactions.

Afilias also released a survey of domain name registrars on deployment issues. From the announcement, the Registrar DNSSEC Readiness Report findings include:

Registrars think DNSSEC is a good idea, but are not yet fully prepared to offer consumer services.  80 percent of registrars believe that top-level domain (TLD) registries should offer DNSSEC. However 90 percent of registrars currently feel completely unprepared or only somewhat prepared to actually offer DNSSEC services to their customers as this time.

69 percent of Registrars plan to offer DNSSEC services in 2011 or beyond. 32 percent have no plan to introduce DNSSEC within the next 12 months.

Consumer demand is the biggest challenge for registrars. 56 percent cite a lack of consumer demand as their biggest challenge impeding their DNSSEC implementation.

Registrars also cite issues with deploying DNSSEC technology:  For example, nearly 20 percent cite the management of DNSSEC keys as their number one concern, followed by more than 18 percent that cite overall DNSSEC technology and expertise.  

Twitter post by @miekg

SIDN has announced that it has implemented DNSSEC in .nl, the world’s third-largest country code top-level domain. The announcement describes next steps:

Early [in] October, SIDN will be offering registrants who have experience of using DNSSEC the opportunity to provide ‘trust anchors’ for their domain names. The small number of anchors involved will then be added to the .nl zone file by SIDN. This Friends and Fans Programme will continue until it is possible to secure all .nl domain names using DNSSEC. SIDN intends to pursue the gradual further rollout of DNSSEC with a view to guaranteeing the availability of the .nl zone. The whole process should be complete before the end of 2011.

SIDN CEO Roelof Meijer said, “After .org, ours is the second biggest zone to successfully implement DNSSEC. We waited until the root had been signed before going ahead, so that no interim solutions were needed and we could sign the entire chain in one go. We felt that this was the most efficient and secure way of bringing DNSSEC to the .nl zone.”

The Xlerance worldwide map of DNSSEC deployment has been updated to reflect the news.

DNS BE, which manages 1 million domain names, announced it has begun supporting DNSSEC in Belgium’s .be domain this week.  A test bed has been launched, and registrars will be able to register DNSSEC-supported domain names in October.

SC Magazine reports that a phased rollout of DNSSEC will begin in Australia next month. From the article:

Next month, regulator auDA (the .au Domain Administration) and its wholesale domain name provider AusRegistry will phase in the Domain Name Security (DNSSEC) protocol across Australian domain names such as those ending in com.au and net.au.  The regulator said the five-stage process will gradually bring domain name owners into the fold as it tests systems over coming months, before rolling out the technology to the mass market.

D-Link is boosting router security, announcing it is “the first in the industry to enhance its router security to a higher level of protection by incorporating both CAPTCHA and DNSSEC to guard against hacking, worms, viruses and other malicious Web attacks.”  From the announcement:

“Unlike other brands, the majority of currently shipping D-Link routers are more difficult to be compromised due to our advanced set of security features. We’re excited to be the first in the market to announce we have taken the initiative to implement both CAPTCHA and DNSSEC into our routers, thus providing yet another layer of security, and we’ll continue to provide our users with the latest in advanced security technologies,” said A.J. Wang, chief technology officer, D-Link.

DNSSEC, CAPTCHA and IPv6 features are available on “most currently shipping D-Link’s routers, with more being updated. Please consult www.dlink.com for availability of firmware updates,” the company advises.

In an effort to ” help United States government agencies simplify compliance with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) mandate to adopt the DNSSEC standard,” Akamai Technologies, Inc., has announced support for DNSSEC, available immediately.

Two options will be available:  “sign and serve” or “serve only.”  From the announcement:

For example, customers that want to fully outsource their key management process can select the “sign and serve” option, which is as simple as checking a box on the Akamai EdgeControl portal. Alternatively, customers that prefer to manage their signing independently can select the “serve only” option.  Additionally, Akamai believes that with its DNSSEC support in place agencies can meet the OMB mandate even if the primary name server (master name server) is not DNSSEC ready.

Akamai Vice President of Sales Thomas Ruff noted “we believe [DNSSEC] is gaining traction with .gov and .org signed and with the announcement to fully deploy DNSSEC by the Root Zone operators.”  For more information about Akamai’s Enhanced DNS service and the new DNSSEC support offering, go here.

A new (now February 14, 2012) Internet draft of DNSSEC Operational Practices, Version 2 has been posted.  A working document of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the document is aimed at zone administrators deploying DNSSEC, and “discusses operational aspects of using keys and signatures in the DNS…issues of key generation, key storage, signature generation, key rollover, and related policies.”  Once approved, it will make obsolete RFC 4641.

EDUCAUSE, the association for information technology in higher education, and VeriSign announced today that DNSSEC has been deployed in the .edu domain.  EDUCAUSE manages .edu under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce. scope of the internet. 

EDUCAUSE President and CEO Diana Oblinger said, “Dating from the creation of ARPANET through the present day, the higher education technology community has played a leading role in the development of the Internet as a platform for learning, discovery, and engagement. We have been happy to continue that role by being a lead partner in the launch of DNSSEC.”