OPEN LETTER

To: Steve Crocker, Chair ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee
Copies to: Vint Cerf, Chair, ICANN Board of Directors
           Paul Twomey, President/CEO of ICANN
           John Klensin, IETF Liaison to ICANN Board of Directors
 

17 October 2003

Steve,

As you are aware, the Internet Architecture Board produced a document on architectural concerns on the use of wildcards in the DNS, looking particularly at the implications on the recent Verisign activity in the .com and .net domains.

The IAB is aware that Verisign has circulated a press release, titled “Verisign Responds to IAB Site Finder Commentary” on October 7th. (http://www.verisign.com/corporate/news/2003/pr_20031007a.html).

The IAB has considered this Verisign document and concluded that there is no significant value in the IAB indulging in an indirect exchange of press releases with Verisign, and the IAB will not formally respond to Verisign’s press release.

The IAB is fully supportive of the efforts of your committee to investigate the full extent of the effects of the deployment of wildcard entries in such domains. If additional technical comment is required, we would appreciate advice with particular instructions on those areas where further IAB comment would be of relevance to your work.

Regards,

    Geoff Huston
    Executive Director, IAB