[ISN] Feds tighten security on .gov

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/092208-government-web-security.html

By Carolyn Duffy Marsan
Network World
09/22/2008 

When you file your taxes online, you want to be sure that the Web site 
you visit -- www.irs.gov -- is operated by the Internal Revenue Service 
and not a scam artist. By the end of next year, you can be confident 
that every U.S. government Web page is being served up by the 
appropriate agency.

That.s because the feds have launched the largest-ever rollout of a new 
authentication mechanism for the Internet.s DNS. All federal agencies 
are deploying DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) on the .gov top-level 
domain, and some expect that once that rollout is complete, banks and 
other businesses might be encouraged to follow suit for their sites.

DNSSEC prevents hackers from hijacking Web traffic and redirecting it to 
bogus sites. The Internet standard prevents spoofing attacks by allowing 
Web sites to verify their domain names and corresponding IP addresses 
using digital signatures and public-key encryption.

With DNSSEC deployed, federal Web sites "are less prone to be hacked 
into, and it means they can offer their services with greater assurances 
to the public," says Leslie Daigle, Chief Internet Technology Officer 
for the Internet Society. "DNSSEC means more confidence in government 
online services."

[...]


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