Swedenâs registry, .SE, is undertaking a series of free courses to alert Swedenâs municipalities on the use of secure DNS, or DNSSEC with the first course taking place in Sundsvall on 4 June. .SE found that 11 of the 290 Swedish municipalities are using secure DNS.
It is an interesting initiative financed by .SE (The Internet Infrastructure Foundation), the Swedish Post and Telecom Agency and the Swedish Urban Network Association.
âDNS is critical,â said Torbjörn Eklöv from the IT consultancy firm Interlan in Gävle who initiated the courses and will be giving most of them. âIf Internet and e-mail stops working, this is a bigger problem than if the fixed telephony breaks down, since the mobile phone is an option in that case. Everyone must see this and the municipalities, with their 24 hour services, should be in the forefront of DNSSEC employment. I also feel that there is an important symbolism in a responsible public sector.â
Many municipalities are aware of the threat posed by DNS security deficiencies, but just havenât dealt with the work involved. Therefore, the course focuses on simplifying for those responsible. It explains what DNSSEC is, why you should implement this technology and how it is done in practice. An explicit objective is that all course participants will sign their domains and they get a USB memory with them home containing everything they need for employment.
More information on the initiative from .SE is available from www.iis.se/en/2009/05/27/kommuner-med-osakra-internetdomaner-erbjuds-utbildning/. .SE has a page on DNSSEC on their website at www.iis.se/en/domaner/dnssec/.
To register your .SE domain name, check out Europe Registry here.