Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ hosted a ceremony yesterday to transfer a real, metal key from a deposit box with a smart card with HSM modules for DNSSEC zone inside. This card is used to check DNS authenticity and integrity. Dmitry Burkov, a trusted community representative who completed his tenure as ICANN West Coast Facility Crypto Officer, transferred the key to the Coordination Center.
Representatives of the Coordination Center took part in the ceremony, including Head of Registrar and User Department Georgy Georgiyevsky, deputy directors of the Coordination Center Irina Daneliya and Sergei Kopylov, as well as communications department members. Coordination Center Director Andrey Vorobyev and Dmitry Burkov were the ones who signed the statement on transferring the key.
“Today, the Coordination Center accepted to become the internet keyholder. This is a major event in terms of its historical and cultural meaning. Dmitry Burkov is a true legend of the Russian internet; for many years, since 2010, he has been one of the 14 crypto officers, also known as keyholders, whose task consisted of keeping the worldwide internet safe. Now that the Coordination Center is taking over as the keyholder, this specific key may only have a symbolic role these days, but it remains exceptionally valuable in terms of its historical and cultural significance,” Andrey Vorobyev emphasized.
“DNS root key signing ceremonies have taken place for many years now both internationally and within specific domain zones. Generating KSKs – key-signing keys for DNSKEY records with DNSSEC parameters for a TLD – for the .RU and .РФ zones is an annual event. Four crypto officers are tasked with ensuring that the key is safe, with two from the Coordination Center and another two from the Technical Center of Internet,” Georgy Georgiyevsky pointed out.
The effort to introduce DNSSEC dates back to the late 2000s. DNSSEC relies on two types of keys, a zone-signing key (ZSK) and the key-signing key (KSK). DNSSEC uses cryptographic signatures to confirm DNS authenticity and integrity. Today, most country-code domains and almost all major TLDs use the DNSSEC technology. Russia’s TLDs .RU and .РФ joined them in late 2012.
