The United States has finally confirmed that it is ready to give up the power of internet's Domain Naming System (DNS) which is among one of the most important components of the internet. The decision will end a 20-year long process due to which the U.S. withheld handing over a crucial part of the internet's governance.
DNS pairs the easy-to-remember web addresses with their respective relevant servers. Without DNS, it wouldn't be possible to access the websites by their domain name, instead one would have to type its IP address, like 194.66.82.10.
It was more due to the circumstance than the intention that the U.S. always had ultimate say in how the DNS should be controlled. It will now give up its power to a non-profit organisation called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), BBC reported.
The two parties agreed on the terms back in 2014, but it's only now that the U.S. decided that Icann was ready to take over.
According to the website of National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA), ICANN is likely to get the "keys to the kingdom" on Oct. 1. From that date, the U.S. will lose its control, however, ICANN will remain based in Los Angeles.
The users of the web won't notice any difference post this change as ICANNhas being doing the same for years now. But some U.S. politicians are criticising the move as it will pave the way for the likes of China and Russia to meddle with a system that has always been under the US protection.
NTIA chief Lawrence Strickland said recently that the IANA stewardship transition is the final step of the U.S. government's long-standing commitment to privatise the Internet's domain name system, PC magazine reported.
ICANN was founded in 1998 specifically for assigning web addresses. Until that point, it was Jon Postel, popularly known as "God of the internet" who was handling the job. He was an authority in internet related issue and his commendable research work included the creation of the systems that underpinned networking. Postel, died shortly after ICANN was created — the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) was at his helm. Administration of the IANA was contracted to ICANN, but NTIA which a part of the U.S. Department of Commerce was controlling it indirectly.
In October, the U.S. government or the NTIA will not have a say on matters related to internet naming anymore. ICANN now is all set to cater and answer multiple stakeholders who wish to have a say in the internet related matter. These include multiple stakeholders such as nations, businesses and groups which offer technical expertise.