ICANN Clarifies Claims About 'Keys' to the Internet
ICANN’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer sought to dispel myths that there are “keys that cause the Internet to function (or not to function),” saying Monday such claims are “incorrect.” Various media outlets have for several years published articles…
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that claim the Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) mechanism constitutes the “keys to the internet,” but it's only a “single part of the Internet -- the mechanism for authenticating the data in the domain name system,” the CTO’s office said in a blog post. “It is based on a hierarchy of [ICANN-managed] cryptographic keys starting at the root of the DNS.” The Trusted Community Representatives that are present when activating the cryptographic keys “perform a valuable service, but for a very limited operation,” the CTO’s office said. “The Internet consists of many different systems, and the DNS is just one of them. Controlling one aspect of the Internet, such as DNSSEC, does not lead to full control of other aspects.”