Annual IANA Functions, DNSSEC Audits Validate ICANN Systems Controls

LOS ANGELES – 2 March 2017 – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has completed audits of the IANA registry management systems and the Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) services it provides. International accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers conducted the audits for the period of 1 December 2015 through 30 September 2016.

For the fourth consecutive year, a Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 audit of the IANA registry maintenance systems shows that ICANN has the appropriate controls in place to ensure the security, availability and processing integrity of IANA functions transactions.

For the seventh consecutive year, ICANN has achieved SOC 3 certification for its management of the DNSSEC root key signing key, which is the trust anchor of the domain name system. SOC 3 certification demonstrates that ICANN's root key signing key processes contain appropriate security measures, and that these processes have been executed as planned. The certificate is publicly available at http://iana.org/audits.

During the period, ICANN upgraded the physical security systems of the Key Management Facilities. "Physical security is an important line of defense to protect the root key signing key," said Elise Gerich, ICANN's Vice President of IANA and Technical Operations. "The upgrade helped us stay SOC compliant and promotes the prevention and detection of unauthorized access." Gerich also serves as President of Public Technical Identifiers, an affiliate of ICANN.

SOC audits evaluate an organization's controls in relation to "trust services principles and criteria" managed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

About ICANN

ICANN's mission is to help ensure a stable, secure and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet, you have to type an address into your computer - a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation and a community with participants from all over the world. ICANN and its community help keep the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It also promotes competition and develops policy for the top-level of the Internet's naming system and facilitates the use of other unique Internet identifiers. For more information please visit: www.icann.org.