SIDN Offers Extra Protection for Domains Following Recent Hacks

SIDN,the company behind .NL extension,announced that it is offering extra protection for domain names following the recent attacks .

You can read the announcement after the jump :

“SIDN’s .nl Control service, which offers registrants extra security for their domain names, has been extended. The extension enables .nl registrants to prevent unauthorised amendments to their domain names’ glue records.  By adding the new feature, SIDN is responding to growing demand triggered by recent security incidents involving .nl domain names. 

.nl Control domain name protection

The .nl Control service provides protection against certain types of unauthorised update to a registration. At present, the protected update types include registrant changes, transfers or cancellations. Relevant update requests for domain names that are registered for .nl Control are not processed automatically, but held until explicit authorisation has been received from the registrant. As soon as such a request is received, SIDN contacts the registrant and asks for written authorisation. The update is not made until the authorisation has been received. So far, however, the system has not covered glue record amendments. 

Introduction of glue record protection

“Following recent DNS server hacks, there’s been growing demand for protection to prevent the modification of glue records,” explained Michiel Henneke, SIDN’s Marketing Manager. “In August, for example, hackers made changes to one of our registrars’ DNS data. Several thousand domain names were affected, with anyone who tried to visit those domains being directed to websites that were distributing malware. The addition of glue record protection to the existing .nl Control service therefore seemed the obvious response. . Because glue record protection is not relevant to all registrants, it will be available as an optional feature of the .nl Control service.” 

Protection against glue record modification

With the optional feature, a registrant’s domain name can be protected against unauthorised modification of the glue records for its in-zone name server. When the feature is enabled, it will not be possible to automatically modify the IP address recorded for an in-zone name server (e.g. ns1.sidn.nl for the domain name sidn.nl). Like the other forms of protected update, a glue record modification will be implemented only once SIDN has obtained the registrant’s approval by phone and in writing. 

More information

The extension of .nl Control enables registrants to exercise even more control over their domain names. For more information and to apply for .nl Control, registrants should contact their registrars or refer to https://www.sidn.nl/en/about-nl/protect-your-domain-name/.”