Plots in the News

If you want to write a thriller novel and are looking for a plot, consider this my gift to you:

In a move that seems inspired by "The Lord of the Rings," seven "keys" have been handed out to a trusted circle of people who might get called upon to "save" the Internet in the aftermath of a cyber attack.

But contrary to other news reports, the seven key holders have not been vested with the power to resurrect the entire Internet should it be sabotaged by hackers.

Rather, they have been given encryption keys necessary for restoring a long-touted Internet security protocol that finally came into force earlier this month.

At least five key-holding members of this fellowship would have to meet at a secure data center in the United States to reboot this so-called Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) in case of a very unlikely system collapse.

"If you round up five of these guys, they can decrypt [the root key] should the West Coast fall in the water and the East Coast get hit by a nuclear bomb," Richard Lamb, program manager for DNSSEC at ICANN, told TechNewsDaily. . . .

Full story here