Juan Carlos Namis, CEO and Jaime Bautista, Manager, Domain Name Services of University Management Ltd. pose next to a plaque commemorating the signing of the .BZ Top-Level-Domain with DNSSEC by Afilias.

Afilias, a global provider of Internet infrastructure services, today announced that it has enabled Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) for five country code Top-Level-Domains (ccTLDs) in Latin America and the Caribbean region. The ccTLDs whose zones have been secured by DNSSEC include: .AG (Antigua and Barbuda), .BZ (Belize), .HN (Honduras) .LC (St. Lucia), and .VC (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines). These TLDs were officially signed by Afilias on October 5, 2010.

“Afilias is pleased to be able to improve the security for the Latin American and Caribbean regions on behalf of our customers by enabling DNSSEC in these important top-level domains,” said Ram Mohan, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Afilias. “DNSSEC’s potential for securing Internet users against malicious attacks is directly dependent on its collective adoption. With the inclusion of these additional five TLDs, DNSSEC adoption continues to increase and presents a stronger argument for other members of the chain of trust to move ahead with their deployments.”

“Among the fastest growing regions of the world in terms of Internet usage, the number of Latin American and the Caribbean Internet users has increased by more than 100 fold over the last ten years,” said Dr. Patrick Lay of NIC AG, representing Antigua and Barbuda. “By deploying DNSSEC we are able to demonstrate our leadership in the Caribbean marketplace as a forward-thinking registry operator that is ready to help the Internet’s security foundation evolve for the next decade of research and development.”

DNSSEC protects the DNS from cache poisoning exploits which can allow malicious entities to intercept an Internet users’ request to access a website, and redirect or eavesdrop on the user without their knowledge, and with no ability to reassert control. DNSSEC introduces digital signatures to the DNS infrastructure and ensures that DNS responses came from their authoritative source.

“.BZ is a popular alternative where businesses are moving to call their online home,” said Juan Carlos Namis of University Management Ltd. “It is important that we provide a secure and stable environment for them and deploying DNSSEC, along with our registry provider Afilias, will allow our domain to be among the select group of early adopters that are embracing the security protocols required for the future.”

“Honduras is home to nearly one million Internet users and the security of our Internet domain, and the domains that these Internet users access, is our key priority. We are pleased to be working with Afilias on this important initiative and believe DNSSEC will benefit both our domain name owners and general consumers around the globe,” added Alicia Paz of Red de Desarrollo Sostenible Honduras.

Mr. Albert H. Daniels, TLD Administrator for NIC LC LLC of St. Lucia added, “Our country is among the list of Caribbean nations that has the highest Internet penetration within our population. Because the Web is a key part of our society and economy, it is critical that we embrace new technologies that can protect Internet consumers. We thank Afilias for their efforts in rolling out this technology for our domain.”

Afilias’ signing of these ccTLDs is part of its “Project Safeguard” initiative, bringing the number of secured TLDs on its registry platform to seven. Afilias’ Project Safeguard includes plans to rollout DNSSEC across its registry and DNS platforms and also incorporates an education and training program for Registrars to facilitate their adoption and implementation. Afilias will soon be enabling DNSSEC for the other TLDs that it supports, in total adding DNSSEC to 13 TLDs before the end of 2010.