The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has postponed plans to change the cryptographic key—a critical step in updating protection measures for the Domain Name System (DNS). In its report issued Thursday evening, ICANN said an “an estimated one-in-four global Internet users, or 750 million people, could be affected by the KSK rollover. ... The changing or ‘rolling’ of the KSK Key was originally scheduled to occur on 11 October, but it is being delayed because some recently obtained data shows that a significant number of resolvers used by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Network Operators are not yet ready for the Key Rollover. The availability of this new data is due to a very recent DNS protocol feature that adds the ability for a resolver to report back to the root servers which keys it has configured.” A new date for the Key Roll has not yet been determined, but the organization says it is aiming at rescheduling the Key Roll for the first quarter of 2018.

Update Oct 4, 2017: ICANN’s VP of Research, Matt Larson, posted a blog today regarding the factors behind the KSK rolloever delay – “The Story Behind ICANN’s Decision to Delay the KSK Rollover”: “I would like to provide some additional details about what went into our decision to delay the roll. You might say it’s the story behind the story. Historically, there has been no way to determine which trust anchors DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) validators have been configured, making it difficult to assess the potential impact of the root KSK rollover. But that recently changed and we received some new data that we simply could not ignore.”