Communications and Information Technology Commission Launches Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) for the Saudi Domain Name System

As part of the efforts undertaken by the Saudi Network Information Center, affiliated with the Communications and Information Technology Commission, aimed at developing and protecting the national infrastructure for Saudi domain names, the Center has activated the Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) for the Saudi domain name system under the Arabic top-level domain (.السعودية), making the Kingdom the first GCC country to activate this extension. DNSSEC enables verification of whether information exists, its source and validity, and protection against breaches of the domain name system, particularly through attacks known as "man-in-the-middle" attacks or "cache poisoning."

The Center invited all entities, hosting companies and operators to learn how this security extension works, and to contact specialists at the Center via email at TryDNSSEC [at] nic.net.sa for more information about the extension, while also taking part in the testing phase by registering an Arabic Saudi domain (under .السعودية), activating the security extension on it, and testing it, ahead of the official launch of the service, which is expected before the end of this year (2016), God willing.

It is worth noting here that DNSSEC is a set of technical specifications that rely on digital signatures to secure and protect information and verify the source of information provided by the Domain Name System (DNS). It was introduced by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) following the increase in breaches and the presence of certain security vulnerabilities that could be exploited to tamper with the DNS.