ICANN Acronyms and Terms
Type in the acronym or term you are looking for in the Search bar below.
In addition to English, translated versions of acronyms and terms are also available in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish. Links for each language are located in the top right of the page.
Click the first letter of the term you are looking for to search alphabetically.
Do you have feedback on the definitions or the terms? Send us an email to: acronymsandterms@icann.org.
Z
zone signing key(ZSK)
In the root zone, the cryptographic public and private key pair that the Root Zone ZSK Operator uses to digitally sign the content of the root zone. To reduce the risk of an attacker compromising the ZSK, a new ZSK is generated every three months.
Note: The managers of zones elsewhere in the Domain Name System may have their own zone signing keys to digitally sign the content of the zones they manage.