Get the latest news from Afilias and its Industry Experts.
DUBLIN, IRELAND - 1 June 2010 - Today Afilias, a leading provider of Internet infrastructure services, announced that its Chief Technology Officer, Ram Mohan, has been named to IDG's InfoWorld CTO 25 Awards for his work and innovation in deploying Domain Name Security Extensions (DNSSEC) in the Internet's domain name system (DNS).
"We congratulate Ram on this prestigious and well deserved recognition of his technology leadership which has improved DNS security across the Internet," said Hal Lubsen, CEO of Afilias. "The deployment of DNSSEC in our systems preceded a broader commitment to DNSSEC worldwide from other parts of the DNS ecosystem, including the Root zone operators, other domain registries, and major ISPs who are now deploying the technology to finally bring the security benefits of DNSSEC to end users."
DNSSEC technology solves Internet security problems like the "Kaminsky bug" (also known as cache poisoning), a highly publicized critical flaw to the DNS which allows malicious third-parties to get control of the DNS communication channel between an end user and a Web site. DNSSEC is an Internet standard developed by the IETF over a decade ago that solves this vulnerability by attaching cryptographic signatures to each DNS query and response. However, large-scale DNSSEC implementation was stalled until .ORG, the Public Interest Registry began work on signing their top-level domain, with technical implementation carried out by Afilias (PIR's technical services provider). Ram Mohan, CTO and Executive Vice President of Afilias, architected the deployment of DNSSEC for .ORG, one of the largest and most trusted domain name registries in the world, completing the signing of the top-level domain in June of 2009.
"This year's honorees reinvented untenable legacies, provided game-changing insight, and managed both their own teams and key organization stakeholders to make their businesses succeed through the use of technology. Our honorees did much more than implement technology well; they brought its use to a new level," said Galen Gruman, Executive Editor/News and Features, InfoWorld.
"I am honored to receive this award and to be supported by an incredible team at Afilias. I'd also like to thank everyone at .ORG for their vision and commitment to DNSSEC," said Ram Mohan. "Much work has been done at the top of the DNS hierarchy, including ICANN, IANA and NTIA, to make DNSSEC a reality. Now is the time for the rest of the chain of trust, from registrars to application providers to enterprises, to embrace it and make DNS security a priority."
Afilias is a global provider of Internet infrastructure services that connect people to their data. Afilias' reliable, secure, scalable, and globally available technology supports a wide range of applications including Internet domain registry services, Managed DNS, and services in the RFID and supply chain market with its Afilias Discovery Services.