This past February, around 100 DNS industry experts met in Atlanta, GA for the “The Global DNS Security, Stability, & Resiliency Symposium.” Organized by ICANN and hosted by Georgia Tech, this event was to strengthen personal relationships between operators and review what we know about the DNS infrastructure.

“The event was great to get together and collaborate on the cross-functional technical risks of DNS,” said Tom Daly, CTO of Dynamic Network Services, an invitee and participant. “The DNS is a distributed hierarchy which requires strong collaboration to solve problems that affect multiple levels. The SSR was a great way to build those connections.”

The content included three breakout groups over two days: Enterprise Use of DNS, DNS in Resource Constrained Environments, and Combating Malicious Use of DNS.

The Enterprise Use of DNS focused around confidentiality, integrity, and availability of DNS in authoritative and recursive DNS servers. A number of open questions and possible solutions were discussed. DNS in Resource Constrained Environments talked primarily about ccTLDs and how with limited resources, they are expected to operate. A review of training and capacity building was documented. Combating Malicious Use covered the connections between registrants, registrars, and registries and how they relate to abuse. A large list of open questions were developed with many potential answers. The combined session centered around infrastructure concerns and DDoS.

We were most interested in Combating Malicious Use. We experience and deal with registration abuse and DDoS on a regular basis. Sharing best practices and hearing what works and what doesn’t work makes our service better and the community stronger.

It was a great session and while the presentations reviewed mostly what we already know, the real value was to build and strengthen relationships. You can read the full SSR summary at: http://bit.ly/Vpoyh [PDF]