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RSTEP Report on PIR's Request to Implement DNSSEC in .ORG

5 June 2008

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On 21 April 2008, ICANN referred Public Interest Registry (PIR)'s proposed implementation [PDF, 205K] of DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) in .ORG to the Registry Services Technical Evaluation Panel (RSTEP). In accordance with the Registry Services Evaluation Policy (RSEP), the RSTEP had 45 calendar days to review the proposal and prepare a written report on whether the proposed Registry Service creates a reasonable risk of a meaningful adverse effect on Security or Stability. The RSTEP Review Team completed its report that can be found at http://icann.org/registries/rsep/rstep-report-pir-dnssec-04jun08.pdf [PDF, 481K]. Very briefly, the technical evaluation found that the proposed implementation of DNSSEC, "does create a reasonable risk of a meaningful adverse effect on security and stability, which can be effectively mitigated by policies, decisions, and actions to which PIR either has expressly committed in its proposal or could reasonably be required to commit."

The Review Team consisted of the following members:

Patrik Fältström (Cisco, Sweden)
Paul Hoffman (VPN Consortium, USA) (Chair)
Mark Kosters (ARIN, USA)
Frederico A C Neves (NIC.br, Brasil)
Andrew Sullivan (Command Prompt, Canada)



Under the terms of the RSEP, following receipt of the RSTEP report, the ICANN Board will determine whether the proposed Registry Service creates a reasonable risk of a meaningful adverse effect on Stability or Security.

ICANN invites public comments on the RSTEP Report through 20 June 2008 23:59 UTC. Comments can be submitted to pir-dnssec-proposal@icann.org, and viewed at http://forum.icann.org/lists/pir-dnssec-proposal/. All documents related to the PIR proposal are available at http://www.icann.org/registries/rsep/#2008004.

The Board is expected to consider the RSTEP Report and PIR's proposal following synthesis and reporting of the public comment.