On December 4, the Coordination Center for TLD RU/РФ and the Technical
Center of Internet have generated DNSSEC keys for .RU, one of two Russian
national domains. The ceremony was attended by media as well as CC and TCI
experts. A formal event signified the first phase of signing .RU with DNSSEC,
with all works expected to be finalized by end of December 2012. A year ago,
.SU domain zone was signed, and Russia's Cyrillic domain, .РФ, has been DNSSEC
signed since October 29, 2012.
During the event, the KSK keys were generated (the key signing keys are used only to sign keys contained in a zone). Four crypto-officers will ensure the security and safety of the key: Maria Kolesnikova and George Georgievsky (the Coordination Center), and Igor Lidin and Alexander Shcherbakov (the Technical Center of Internet). Crypto-operators Valery Temnikov and Nikolay Labaznikov, domain zone administrators Pyotr Andreev and Dmitry Kovalenko, register administrators Vasily Funtikov and Andrey Kirillin, as well as two observers Robert Gledenov and Sergey Fedotov, took part in the ceremony. The key is generated in a console mode, and kept on a device that is not connected to any network.
After every crypto-officer has received their part of the complex password, the devices containing parts of the password were placed in special safety containers and sealed. This way, the access to any manipulations with the KSK key is only possible with all crypto-officers present. Also, a reserve copy of the key is kept on a sealed computer as well; this device is kept in one of the TCI's datacenters in Russia. The open part of the key is public and available to everyone in the Internet community.
"In the nearest future, the largest Russian domain zone, .RU, will see DNSSEC fully deployed, allowing additional security options for website owners. This is a very important step for us as this December, the DNSSEC will be effective in both Russia's national domains, .RU and .РФ, as well as in .SU. We hope that Russian Internet community will use the new capabilities actively, as it is essential to join our efforts in building the trust chains, making the Internet safer", says Elena Voronina, chief technical officer at TCI.
