Domain names surpass 196 million mark

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There are now more than 196 million top level domain names on the internet thanks to a boost of over three million additions in the second quarter of 2010.

This represented an increase of two per cent over the first quarter of this year and compared to the second quarter of 2009, registrations grew seven per cent, a report from VeriSign has shown.

Overall, the base of .com and .net domain names surpassed the 100 million mark as new registrations totalled 7.9 million over the second quarter.

The report also pointed to the progress of implementing Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC), which cryptographically signs DNS data. This helps protect users from attacks such as DNS cache poisoning.

A Forrester Research poll carried out on behalf of VeriSign showed that of the 297 IT decision-makers surveyed, over half had experienced DNS-related attacks.

However, only 43 per cent of respondents said they knew what DNSSEC was and what it did.

"With so many factors pointing toward the need for widespread DNSSEC adoption, one of the greatest obstacles lies in building awareness of the technology and its value among the Internet community as a whole," said Ken Silva, senior vice president and chief technology officer at VeriSign.

"The path toward global deployment is a long one, but with the implementation of DNSSEC at the root and the growing call for DNS security measures at companies and organisations, the community has taken a significant first step."

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