On October 20th, ICANN and Verisign renewed the agreement under which Verisign will continue to act as Root Zone Maintainer for the Domain Name System (DNS) for another 8-year term. The Root Zone sits atop the hierarchical architecture of the DNS and is essential to virtually all internet navigation, acting as the dynamic, cryptographically secure, global directory of all top-level domains that exist in the DNS. The Root Zone Maintainer is a unique role that ensures the cryptographic signing and publication of the Root Zone no less than once a day, without which, navigation on the internet would be impossible.

Verisign has performed this function since 1993, on behalf of the National Science Foundation, the Department of Commerce, and, with the successful transition in 2016, now ICANN. This renewal reflects the trust that the global community continues to place in Verisign to provide this critical function. Verisign technologists work to apply the same technical and operational rigor to the company’s Root Zone Maintainer responsibilities as they do to the .com and .net DNS, which Verisign has operated with 100 percent operational accuracy and availability for more than 27 years.

ICANN is responsible, through its IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) functions, for managing the content of the Root Zone by applying global policies. The Root Zone Maintainer implements IANA decisions modifying the Root Zone, performs a number of checks and balances, and then publishes an updated Root Zone to Root Server Operators.

Verisign remains committed to continuing to fulfill this unique and essential responsibility with this renewed partnership with ICANN.