The Internet Society Deploy360 Programme provides real-world deployment information for key Internet technologies. We aim to bridge the gap between the IETF standards process and final adoption of those standards by the global operations community. We find, create, and promote resources that are easy to understand and quickly actionable by the IT professionals responsible for the implementation of new technologies and standards. Learn more.

IPv6 is the next generation Internet Protocol (IP) address standard intended to eventually replace IPv4, the protocol most Internet services use today. Every computer, mobile phone, and any other device connected to the Internet needs a numerical IP address in order to communicate with other devices. The original IP address scheme, called IPv4, is running out of numbers.

Almost every time we use an Internet application, it starts with a Domain Name System (DNS) transaction to map a human-friendly domain name into a set of IP addresses. DNS transactions can therefore be correlated to the applications we use, the web sites we visit, and sometimes even the people we communicate with. How can we mitigate the privacy implications of the DNS?

Few technologies are more critical to the operation of the Internet than the Domain Name System (DNS). DNS Security (DNSSEC) is designed to authenticate DNS response data. It verifies responses to ensure a DNS server’s response is what the zone administrator intended. It does not address all threats (nothing does), but it provides a building block for providing additional data security, and not just within the DNS but also within the applications and services that are built on it.

How do we help prevent the massive Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks we continue to see on the Internet?  What can be done by network operators, enterprises, and others to help reduce DDoS attacks and other similar threats?

The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is the protocol used throughout the Internet to exchange routing information between networks. It is the language spoken by routers on the Internet to determine how packets can be sent from one router to another to reach their final destination. BGP has worked extremely well and continues to the be protocol that makes the Internet work.

To make the Internet more secure, Transport Layer Security (TLS), the successor to Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), needs to be widely deployed by all kinds of applications across the Internet. People are generally familiar with TLS from the “https” and lock icons seen in web browsers, but TLS can be used in so many other applications.