[CCWG-ACCT] RZMA and .COM Registry Agreement Reviews

Thu Jun 30 14:58:09 UTC 2016

Hill.
Thanks for the update.
-Akinbo.

On Thu, Jun 30, 2016 at 3:27 PM, Hillary Jett <hillary.jett at icann.org>
wrote:

> As outlined in Akram’s blog below, ICANN has published the RZMA and.COM
> Registry Agreement Amendments today.
>
> The RZMA can be found here:
> https://www.icann.org/iana_imp_docs/63-root-zone-maintainer-agreement-v-1-0.
> This agreement is posted for a 30-day public review period before it will
> be signed.
>
>
>
> In addition, ICANN has published the Proposed Amendment to .COM Registry
> Agreement for a 43-day public comment period. The public comment page is
> here: https://www.icann.org/public-comments/com-amendment-2016-06-30-en
>
> and the public comment will run through 12 August 2016.
>
>
>
> *From: *<accountability-cross-community-bounces at icann.org> on behalf of
> Grace Abuhamad <grace.abuhamad at icann.org>
> *Date: *Tuesday, June 28, 2016 at 7:27 PM
> *To: *CCWG-Accountability <accountability-cross-community at icann.org>
> *Subject: *[CCWG-ACCT] Root Zone Management Transition Update:
> Preservation of Security, Stability and Resiliency
>
>
>
>
>
> Original link:
> https://www.icann.org/news/blog/root-zone-management-transition-update-preservation-of-security-stability-and-resiliency
>
>
>
> *Root Zone Management Transition Update: Preservation of
> Security, Stability and Resiliency*
>
> On March 4, 2015, the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information
> Administration (NTIA) officially requested that ICANN and Verisign work
> together to develop a proposal on how best to transition
> theNTIA administrative role associated with root zone management in a
> manner that maintains the security and stability of the Internet’s domain
> name system. NTIA previously announced that the transition of this aspect
> of its administrative role was a process separate from but parallel to
> the IANA stewardship transition.
>
> Verisign and ICANN submitted a proposal to NTIA that contained two primary
> elements. First, the teams would build and test a parallel root zone
> management system that would simulate root zone management functions
> without NTIA’s current authorization role. That system is now approaching
> the completion of its 90-day defect free testing phase. Second, in
> anticipation of the release of Verisign from root zone management
> obligations by NTIA under the Cooperative Agreement, the teams began work
> on a commercial agreement between ICANN and Verisign for the continued
> performance of root zone management functions.
>
> We are pleased to announce that ICANN and Verisign have completed the
> discussions and negotiations for the root zone maintainer services
> agreement (RZMA).
>
> Since the early days of the Internet, Verisign has been providing
> “registration services” under its Cooperative Agreement with NTIA, which
> was broadly defined to include root zone management functions and Top Level
> Domain registry services. NTIA recognized that root zone management aspects
> of the IANA functions contract are “inextricably intertwined” with the
> Cooperative Agreement. Given the unified nature of the present Cooperative
> Agreement, much of the root zone infrastructure itself is “inextricably
> intertwined” with Verisign’s TLD operations for .com: the servers that
> provide root services are hosted at every .com resolution site (over 100
> locations). These servers share bandwidth, routing and monitoring with the
> .com operations, and the servers use the same code base as the .com TLDname
> servers and are operated and maintained by the same operation and
> engineering group. On the provisioning side, the root zone’s provisioning
> system is derived from the .com Shared Registration System (SRS), using the
> structure, schema, and software used for .com provisioning
> operations. Verisign builds and signs the root zone today using the same
> cryptographic facilities used for .com as well as signing software derived
> from that used for signing .com.  Importantly, Verisign’s root zone
> operations are also within the .com’s Denial of Service attack detection
> and mitigation framework including independent internal and external
> monitoring and packet filtering at all layers. A key component of ensuring
> security of the root operations was making sure that those operations
> continued to benefit from its historic association with the .com operations.
>
> The RZMA is intended to maintain stable, secure, and reliable operations
> of the root zone not only for direct root zone management service customers
> (Registry Operators, Registrars and Root Server Operators), but also to
> maintain the security and stability of the Internet’s domain name
> system. This was achieved by a simple extension of the .com Registry
> Agreement to coincide with the term of the new RZMA.
>
> Regarding the RZMA, some of the key features include:
>
> ?         Requiring Verisign and ICANN to work together in good faith to
> preserve the security, stability and resiliency of the root zone and root
> zone management system consistent with the security and stability of the
> Internet.
>
> ?         Detailing ICANN’s responsibility to authenticate, verify, and
> submit to Verisign changes to the service data comprised in the Root
> Zone File.
>
> ?         Establishing service level requirements for Verisign to
> process, edit, generate and publish the Root Zone File, including an
> accelerated path to update the service data in the Root Zone File in cases
> of emergency.
>
> ?         Describing ICANN and Verisign’s key-signing obligations, which
> are to be performed in a secure, transparent and accountable manner.
>
> ?         Providing that the integrity of the service data of the Root
> Zone File and the Verisign systems performing the root zone maintainer
> function will be operated under a business continuity plan with the same
> product support level as maintained by the .com DNS resolution service and
> .com SRS, respectively.
>
> ?         Setting forth that Verisign will participate as a member of the
> future Root Zone Evolution Review Committee.
>
> ?         Providing for continuity of the security and stability of the
> root zone through a one-year transition process which may be initiated by a
> community driven process under which Verisign continues to perform the root
> zone maintainer function while ICANN implements a public RFP process to
> identify and onboard a new provider.
>
> ?         Setting out the development of an emergency transition process
> for extraordinary events.
>
> ?         Requiring ICANN and Verisign to meet quarterly to prioritize
> potential changes and updates to the services, including service levels and
> to prioritize a roadmap for implementation of such changes that may be
> effected through a built in change control process.
>
> What’s left to be done? Soon, we will post the RZMA for public review and
> the .com registry agreement amendment for public comment, after which our
> respective boards of directors will be asked to approve the agreements. The
> .com extension will be sent to NTIA for review and approval according to
> their processes.
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> *Grace Abuhamad*
>
> Manager, Public Policy
>
>
>
> *ICANN | Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers*
>
> 801 17th Street NW, Suite 400 | Washington, DC 20006
>
> Direct: +1 202 249 7545 | Mobile: +1 310 200 7638
>
>
>
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>
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>
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>

-- 
*---------*
*Akinbo, Adebunmi Adeola*
*(signature: Akinbo A. A. Cornerstone).*
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