Holding part of the Key to Internet Security

[McZiderRed]

I'm sure this is right place to post this, as it's to do with technology.

There is a bloke in Bath, Somerset, that holds part of the Key to Internet Security! Apparently, in the event of something really bad happening, this guy "has been chosen to look after one of seven keys, which will 'restart the world wide web' in the event of a catastrophic event."

Bath entrepreneur 'holds the key' to internet security

Apparently, there are 7 people with such keys and if required, he will travel to the US to meet up with at least 5 other key holders. They will then use their keys to unlock the master signing key, which will enable the restart of the internet! Groovy!

There's also other security stuff happening, like more secure emails and such...

So, if ever you meet him, be nice to the guy. He's one of the people that's safeguarding mankind's e-nadgers.

 

[MajorDanby]

Cool, I wonder if I steal his key how much money I would get for it, in the event of a terrorist attack, and the internet needing to be restarted??

Don't know how I'd buy my plane ticket to the the US though with no internet

 

[Bullfrog]

Are you sure this isn't the plot of the next Jerry Bruckheimer film? Possibly a bit too original come to think of it.

 

[Brogan]

No need to panic.

I'm downloading the internet as we speak so I'll have a backup

 

[Speshal]

Utter balderdash, utter and not very made up at all.

In the event of a security breach - such as a terrorist attack

Holy shudders batman, maybe the terrorists can find the internet cos as it stands at the moment, there are millions of servers, serving up billions of web pages.

There is no "the internet" and the likelihood of there being "7 keys to the internet" is preposterous, almost as idiotic as naming one of the key holders - "hey, want to take down ""the internet"" why not bring down the ""internet"" and then take out the only 7 people who can "restart it""

Codswallop.

 

[GeoffP]

Just wondering, even if the internet had the ability to be re-started by 7 key-holders, how is this guy meant to book his flight to the US?

Me thinks this one liner has more holes than is required by mere punctuation

 

[McZiderRed]

Maybe the idea is that they've saved the "kernel" of the idea of the internet in the US. I mean, as Bro's humorous download moving image aptly demonstrates, is that saving the internet in it's entirety is a nonsense. As Spesh says, how can you save the internet, that by definition is a network of networks spread all around the world.

However, what you can save, is the idea of the internet, how to set it up and as much information as you can. That is what I reckon is what they mean....

And also, surely the government could arrange a flight to the US without having to book it!

 

[Brogan]

As far as I'm aware, there are in fact just 13 main servers which are the backbone of the whole internet.

 

[fat jez]

There are 13 TLD domain servers, running on a variety of different operating systems.

 

[McZiderRed]

OK. Have I got this right..?

Forget all this stuff about terrorist attacks, etc taking out the internet. What this is actually about is Domain Names Security.

What they've done is built a 'safe' contain the proven authentic domain names, so if needed, they can be called upon to repopulate the internet with the safe secure domain names that people can rely upon, as opposed to 'hacked' false domain's, ready to pick your virtual back pocket before clubbing you over the noggin'.

http://www.cdns.net/key-signing.html

 

[McZiderRed]

The Root DNSSEC Design Team is pleased to report that the first fully validatable production signed root zone, with SOA serial number 2010071501, was published and began rolling out to the root servers at 2050 UTC.

DNSSEC (short for DNS Security Extensions) adds security to the Domain Name System.

DNSSEC was designed to protect the Internet from certain attacks, such as DNS cache poisoning [0]. It is a set of extensions to DNS, which provide: a) origin authentication of DNS data, b) data integrity, and c) authenticated denial of existence

http://www.dnssec.net/

 

[Speshal]

I hope they'll save mine

http://reacharound.me.uk/

 

[FB]

If you can track down yesterdays Today program on Radio 4 you can hear an interview with this fellow. Very interesting but things like this always make me think of the IT Crowd.