VeriSign is pushing ahead with plans to make the internet's Domain Name System (DNS) more resilient to internet attacks. But although it will make its upgraded server infrastructure IPv6 and DNSSec ready, the net infrastructure giant reckons the touted performance improvements promised by the protocols have been delivered by other means.

In the latest phase of what the firm has dubbed Project Titan, VeriSign intends to officially open up new sites in Paris and Brussels later this week. Both centres will be outfitted with proprietary security upgrades designed to make it easier to track and isolate hacking attack traffic. Tata Communications is hosting the two new sites which join the 70 other websites VeriSign runs across the world.

Ken Silva, CTO of VeriSign, and leader of Project Titan, explained that VeriSign was adding capacity both to deal with an expanded online population and to deal with attacks.

"Hacking attacks have become more creative. They can range from basic PING flooding attacks to attacks more targeted on the DNS," Silva told El Reg. "In addition, we're seeing more attacks from mobile sources."

Silva added that VeriSign was making its infrastructure IPv6 and DNSSec ready. Both protocols have been talked about as the next big thing in networking for years without much action on the ground. IPv6 offers a far greater address space than the current Internet Protocol, IPv4. DNSSec is an IETF standard that adds cryptographic authentication and integrity checks to DNS systems.

"IPv6 is difficult to roll out onto infrastructures but we're prepared for when people get there. In the case of DNSSec, the security threats it was designed to address have been mitigated by changes to DNS software or in other ways, so the urgency is not there," Silva explained. ®

Related stories

• AT&T snaps up VeriSign's security consulting biz (2 October 2009)
• At long last, internet's root zone to be secured (4 June 2009)
• Analysis Ready or not, IPv6 is coming (3 April 2009)
• Feds prep gov domains for net address server swap (18 November 2008)
• Shocker DNS spoofing vuln discovered three years ago by a student (9 July 2008)
• Updated MS DNS patch snuffs net connection for ZoneAlarm users (9 July 2008)
• Mystery over Verisign boss' shock exit (4 July 2008)
• Scripting bugs blight security giants' websites (13 June 2008)
• EU sets ambitious IPv6 target (27 May 2008)
• World economy group gives IPv6 big push (16 May 2008)
• Will EV SSL stop phishing attacks? Probably not (29 February 2008)
• IPv6 roots planted on the net (4 February 2008)
• DNS security improves as firms tool up to tackle spam (20 November 2007)
• Interview Net security from one of the fathers of the biz (22 January 2007)
• Interview DNS creator considers the Internet's next 20 years (24 June 2003)
• DNS inventor calls for security overhaul (11 April 2003)
• ICANN ponders DNS hack defence role (15 November 2001)