Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Canadian Who Holds the Key To the Internet

Posted by Soulskill on from the hope-nothing-breaks-during-hockey-season dept.

drbutts writes "The Toronto Star has an interesting story on how they are securing DNS: 'It's housed in two high-security facilities separated by the North American landmass. The one authenticated map of the Internet. Were it to be lost — either through a catastrophic physical or cyber attack — it could be recreated by seven individuals spread around the globe. One of them is Ottawa's Norm Ritchie. Ritchie was recently chosen to hold one of seven smartcards that can rebuild the root key that underpins this system' called DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions). In essence, these seven can rebuild the architecture that allows users to know for certain where they are and where they are going when navigating the Web."

6 of 199 comments (clear)

  1. Not good by countertrolling · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The internet is supposed to be able to repair itself. You know, route around damage and stuff? This all sounds as fragile as our transportation system when merely threatened with an explosive device, bringing it to a complete halt. Is our entire food supply this flimsy?

    --
    For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
    1. Re:Not good by nacturation · · Score: 5, Informative

      The internet is supposed to be able to repair itself. You know, route around damage and stuff?

      The internet will continue to work fine. This only impacts DNSSEC and the ability to rebuild based on the private key distributed on those smartcards. If all 7 get assassinated and their smart cards hacked to bits with no backups, we can still revert to plain old DNS.

      --
      Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
  2. Re:Really two different halves by joeflies · · Score: 5, Informative

    The article does state that you need 5 of 7 to restore.

  3. seven? nine? three? by chub_mackerel · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ritchie was recently chosen to hold one of seven smartcards that can rebuild the root key that underpins this system' called DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions).

    I thought the dwarves got seven cards. And, the humans got nine... and the elves three. Or, am I mixing something up?

  4. Seven, heh ? by zzyzyx · · Score: 5, Funny

    One Card to rule them all, One Card to find them,
    One Card to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

  5. My first thought... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Earth! Fire! Wind! Water! Heart!

    It'd be awesome if they yelled that out as they each scanned their cards.