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In June, the Public Interest Registry plans to add DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC), an extra layer of security, to the .org domain which will provide non-profits with additional protection from cache poisoning, according to an article on NetworkWorld. Hackers use cache poisoning attacks to divert traffic from a legitimate website to a false website that is designed to look legitimate. Any information entered by the visitor is captured by the cyber criminal.
DNSSEC allows websites to verify domain names and IP addresses via public-key encryption and digital signatures. The move was announced late last week by the Public Interest Registry. Approximately 8 million domain names are registered in the .org domain.
“When we first announced last year the signing of our zone, we showed that DNSSEC was not a utopian vision, but that it was needed for the future of the Internet,” says Alexa Raad, CEO of The Public Interest Registry. “Everything runs on DNS. If you believe that there are going to continue to be more and more applications that run on DNS, then you have to think about DNSSEC.”
Many non-profits accept donations from the public, which makes them particularly vulnerable to cache poisoning. “There are credit unions that use .org“¦and there are non-profit organizations that are in fundraising and have been targets for attacks, some of them quite public,” Raad said. Using DNSSEC “will allow our customers who require security to have it.”
