The Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which oversees the registry of domain names and IP addresses, is planning to perform a Root Zone Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) KSKS rollover on Thursday.

“Rolling the KSK means generating new cryptographic public and private key pair and distributing the new public component to parties who operate validating resolvers, including: Internet Service Providers; enterprise network administrators and other Domain Name System (DNS) resolver operators; DNS resolver software developers; system integrators; and hardware and software distributors who install or ship the root’s “trust anchor.” The KSK is used to cryptographically sign the Zone Signing Key (ZSK), which is used by the Root Zone Maintainer to DNSSEC-sign the root zone of the Internet’s DNS.

Maintaining an up-to-date KSK is essential to ensuring DNSSEC-validating DNS resolvers continue to function following the rollover.  Failure to have the current root zone KSK will mean that DNSSEC-validating DNS resolvers will be unable to resolve any DNS queries.

The KSK rollover plans were developed by the Zoot Zone Management Partners; ICANN in its role as the IANA Functions Operators, Verisign as the Root Zone Maintainer, and the US Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) as the root zone,” said ICANN.

Within the next 48-hours, internet users around the world are at risk for network connection failures as the main domain servers and related infrastructure controlling the internet will be powered down for some time, warned the Russian Times.

The Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) of Qatar has cautioned its public in a memo against misleading information circulating on Facebook about an alleged “two-day Internet outage across the world.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…