(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- The GLOBE Program (www.globe.gov), a collaborative government initiative, has chosen the Dynect Platform to implement the Domain Name System Security Extensions mandate made by the President's Office of Management and Budget.

DNSSEC adds an additional layer of security to the DNS that verifies identity and authenticity of domain names when being accessed by an Internet user. The OMB ordered every federal agency to implement it before the end of 2009 after the discovery of cache poisoning flaws in DNS. As the deadline came and went, however, DNS software vendor Secure64 (www.secure64.com) found that 80-percent of the 360 federal domains it investigated were lacking DNSSEC, which helps protect against the Internet's most dangerous types of DNS attacks, including phishing and cache poisoning that can be used to redirect websites and steal sensitive information..

The GLOBE Program was launched to promote and support the collaboration of students, teachers and scientists on inquiry-based investigations of the environment and the Earth system, working in close partnership with NASA and NSF Earth System Science Projects in study and research about the dynamics of Earth's environment.

Not making repeating the same mistake, the GLOBE Program has partnered with managed DNS services provider Dynamic Network Services Inc. (www.dyn.com/dynect). The Dynect Platform offers a comprehensive solution to any organization that may have been intimidated by the process.

"For that large percentage of federal government agencies who missed the DNSSEC deadline this past December, we are here to help you implement," Dyn Inc sales and marketing vice president Kyle York said in a statement. "Some common beliefs about DNSSEC are that it will increase DNS server load and that the overall process from acquiring to signing keys is quite complicated, but we have a network of overpowered DNS servers and a team of DNS experts that can walk you through the process and answer any questions to ensure this is a positive evolution for your overall site security efforts."

GLOBE Program systems administrator Mark Sallee said NASA requires the initiative to migrate its .gov domain to use DNSSEC. "The transition was smooth, the customer service was responsive, and the user interface made the rather complicated process quite simple," Sallee said in a statement. "I'm glad that the DNSSEC service worked as well as it did. I'm sure other .gov sites would benefit from partnership with the service provided on the Dynect Platform, since the alternative, manual setup is complicated and probably many systems administrators have not yet had much experience with key creation, signing, and rollover."

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