back to article How does the US government run the internet? This is how

The US government has posted a step-by-step guide to how it authorizes changes to the internet's root zone – the heart of the world's domain-name system. The 16-page slide deck [PDF] published by the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) sheds light on what has been a …

  1. Ole Juul

    I'm still suspicious

    The 16-page slide deck . . . sheds light on what has been a contentious and largely secret process for the past 15 years.

    Why the secrecy? When there is no shown security issue with disclosure, then one has to suspect that there is some hidden reason for keeping the information from the public.

    1. Tom 13

      Re: I'm still suspicious

      No secrecy, just bog standard government red tape coupled with the standard government employee superiority complex.

  2. Beachrider

    USA running the Internet...

    There is nothing preventing others from doing their own services deployment and connecting it to the Internet. There is a lot of evidence that indicates that it is often done. If you follow protocol, no one will notice AND you can inter route packets.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    And

    there were only 47 changes because of all the crap new domains noby uses .christmas fgs

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not sure what the point is

    If the rest of the world wants to cut out the US, they can do it today. Just make a copy of the current root zone files, start up their own network of root servers, point all their DNS servers at those root servers instead of the IANA root servers...problem solved. Then they can start updating it independent of the US, and idiots can go suing them to try to take the .ir domain.

    1. James12345
      FAIL

      Re: Not sure what the point is

      They're not idiots; they are people whose family members were murdered.

      1. W3dge

        Re: Not sure what the point is

        Doesn't stop them from being idiots...

        1. James12345
          Facepalm

          Re: Not sure what the point is

          However, your comment certainly makes you one.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Not sure what the point is @W3dge

          No, your comment only serves to show what kind of an ass you are.

          1. Jamie Jones Silver badge

            Re: Not sure what the point is @W3dge

            Bloody hell guys, this isn't Slashdot.

            How about "The idiots are the people who suggested the idea, snd the lawyers who ran with it - all of who have exploited (either inadvertently or not) the families grief."

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Not sure what the point is

      Please go pissoff. You couldn't be more of an uncaring ass. The lawsuit is to recover any property from murderers. If it happened to your family you would be doing the same thing.

  5. Ken Hagan Gold badge

    Yawn

    "Governments across the world have been concerned that the US government could theoretically knock their individual internet registries offline."

    The US has had this theoretical power for the last 30 years. They've never used it. Even if they did, it wouldn't stop dotted IP addresses from working and wouldn't stop people setting up alternative DNS nameservers that continued to dish up names for the blocked TLDs.

    During that period they have invaded several countries and rattled sabres with several nuclear powers, so I think we can conclude that their reluctance to pull the plug on DNS is not simply a case of "We haven't been angry enough, yet.".

  6. ElNumbre
    Stop

    Nominet

    I recently registered a couple of .co.uk domains and was surprised that Nominet requested a copy of a passport/driving licence and billing details to be sent to them. I ignored the requests and they eventually went away, but I think my skepticism on how well they can control such personal data like that may be well founded if ICANN can get breached like this.

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