The Root of All E-Mail

wiredog writes "A Washington Post story about the DNS, the VeriSign NOC, and some of the security therein." Especially interesting in light of the recent security lockdowns throughout much of the Western world. The havoc of losing the A root server would be bad, like Staypuft Marshmallow Man bad.

Comments

Blindfolded

[0xB]

Verisign offer Tours of their Virginia NOC. Do they take you there blindfolded?

Re:Blindfolded

[alexjohns]

Verisign offer Tours of their Virginia NOC. Do they take you there blindfolded?

No, but occasionally they move the building (a really big tractor trailer) and a couple of times a year they move Virginia. You probably wouldn't notice if you didn't live there, but I live right next door in Maryland and have noticed that sometimes Virginia seems to be in a different place.

Weirded me out the first time; now I'm pretty much used to it. It's really weird when you're hiking the Appalachian trail. But that's an entirely different story.

Re:Blindfolded

[Mortanius]

Just do it like Microsoft EULA's. Put a sign up at the front of the building, "By opening this door, you agree to..."

Re:Blindfolded

[raju1kabir]

Just do it like Microsoft EULA's. Put a sign up at the front of the building, "By opening this door, you agree to..."

You mean, put a sign inside the building that says "By opening that door a few minutes ago, you agreed to be shot."

Shades of Dilbert

[kin_korn_karn]

is Dogbert the CIO at Verisign or something?

"He who controls the information controls you. I CONTROL THE INFORMATION!!"

Re:Shades of Dilbert

[sharkey]

Possibly. Catbert is definitely in charge of the customer "service" department.

Bad?

[justin_w_hall]

Venkman - "I'm a little fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean, bad?"

Egon - "Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light."

Ray - "Total protonic reversal..."

Venkman - "Alright, important safety tip. Thanks, Egon."

Ah, one of the great comedies of the 80's...

Re:Bad?

[jhaberman]

Hey... this Staypuft guy isn't so bad... He's a sailor... he's in New York.... We get this guy laid, we got nothing to worry about...

All Your A Root Server Are Belong To Us!

[Meowharishi]

IN AD 2002 WAR WAS BEGINNING

(Scene: Verisign Data Center inside Washington DC. Huge explosion on top floor of red brick office building, sending flaming servers flying through the night sky)

(Cut to home of Verisign CEO, he is in bed with his fat wife, snoring loudly. The phone rings, and he wakes up, wiping the slobber from his chin while answering)

Verisign CEO: "What you want!"

Voice on the phone: "Somebody set us up the bomb!"

CEO: "What you say!"

Phone voice: "We get signal!"

(static on phone, all of a sudden a voice breaks in)

Arabian voice: "How are you gentlemen? By the Grace of Allah, All your A Root Servers are belonging to us! You have no chance to survive, make your time!"

CEO: "It's YOU! Restore backup! Implement Emergency Response Plan A! Move every server! For great justice!"

Arabian voice: "HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!"

Say what now?

[st0rmshad0w]

"Obscurity is the first line of defense. The building is unmarked, its address unspecified in company literature and its managers tight-lipped about disclosing driving directions or identifying markings to strangers.
While the location of the building is not a true secret -- dozens if not hundreds of Internet addressing insiders know where it is -- it would be difficult for a casual vandal or criminal to stumble across it, Rippe said.

And the casual vandal or criminal would be interested in it because?

For crying out loud, a 1 second Google search on "Verisign NOC" reveals the COMPLETE ADDRESS in a PARTY INVITATION!?!? in the very first result!

Yeah, I feel safe.

Re:This is what'll screw us all in the end

[Hugonz]

Secrets have never worked in security before, and they won't work now.

So, can I please have the recipe for making Coke? I'm tired of buying those silly bottles.

Re:What the----

[iphayd]

Actually, obscurity is the best policy in this instance...

You see, the _actual_ A list server is sitting in the basement of somebody's house, humming away like it has for the last 20 years (it hasn't been upgraded at all). What was described in the article is the server they show government officials and journalists, so that we, the masses, can sleep better at night. They then hire geeky looking actors to stare at quicktime movies of "net traffic" while the big wig is there.

15 minutes after the person is gone, the building is shut off, and everyone goes home.

Re:root servers are redundant, how 'bout MAE?

[sirinek]

I bet the spammers would be willing to sell you a list of all the domain owners and their contact info!!! :)

siri

Re:What the----

[shawnmelliott]

so..
tracert Aroot
state.of.la 10 ms
1 state.of.va 34 ms
2 sterling.va 15 ms
3 beltway.sterling.va 33 ms
4 fewmiles.beltway.sterling.va 12 ms
5 building.sterling.va 10 ms
6 mantrap.building.sterling.va 3 ms
7 room.building.sterling.va 8 ms
8 Aroot.building.sterling.va 7 ms

Trace Complete

Hugs

[omega9]

"The last thing I'd want someone to think is that they could put a bomb around their waist and hug the A root and think they're going to significantly impact the Internet,"

Forget the bomb. What techie wouldn't get a boner for the chance to "hug the A root"?!?

Re:Well then...

[laserjet]

You are absolutely right. It's aboot freedom. It's aboot security. It's aboot obscurity. It's aboot time we move this thing to Canada!

Slashdot IP

[Placido]

The havoc of losing the A root server would be bad, like Staypuft Marshmallow Man bad.

Psh! I don't care if all DNS servers collapsed! I've got 64.28.67.150 tattoed on the back of my hand.