Deputy Governor of the Communications Commission opens the third training workshop on the Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC)

Dr. Mohammed bin Saud Al-Tamimi, Deputy Governor of the Communications and Information Technology Commission for Regulation and Competition, today opened, at the Commission's headquarters in Riyadh, the third training workshop on the Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC), with the attendance of government and academic entities in the Kingdom.

Dr. Al-Tamimi said that this workshop comes as part of the Commission's efforts to develop the Saudi internet domain name system (السعودية, .sa), and to work on the widespread implementation of DNSSEC. He noted that the Kingdom is considered the first country in the Middle East and North Africa region to implement the secure extension (DNSSEC) on the national domain name system and make its use available to the public since 2017, whereby customers can sign and secure their domain name information and publish the extension's signing keys through the Saudi domain names e-services portal (www.nic.sa).

DNSSEC is a set of technical specifications for securing and protecting the information provided by the Domain Name System (DNS), which uses the Internet Protocol (IP) system on the internet network, where DNSSEC technology, which uses public-key cryptography, works to increase the level of security in the domain name system, and enables verification of the existence of information on the system as well as confirming its validity and source, in order to reduce certain cyberattacks such as what is known as "man-in-the-middle" attacks and "cache poisoning" attacks.

It is worth noting that the Communications and Information Technology Commission has, in cooperation with RIPE NCC, so far held three training programs including specialists from multiple entities in the Kingdom including internet service providers, the banking sector, and government and academic entities on implementing DNSSEC, with the aim of leading and building capabilities in the field of cybersecurity in the Kingdom, and enabling participation in learning about the secure domain name system extension and taking it into consideration in their networks, applications, and services. The number of participants in these programs has exceeded 100 trainees representing more than 50 entities in the Kingdom.