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'''Verisign''' is an Internet infrastructure service provider. It is based in Reston, VA and was founded in 1995. Verisign has offices in Virginia, California, Washington D.C., India, Brazil, China, Australia, Switzerland, and the UK.

'''Verisign''' is an Internet infrastructure service provider. It is based in Reston, VA and was founded in 1995. The company has offices around the world, in Virginia, California, Washington D.C., India, Brazil, China, Australia, Switzerland, and the UK.

Its registry services include operating the authoritative directory for the following [[TLD]]s:

Its registry services include operating the authoritative directory for the following [[TLD]]s:

* [[.gov]]

* [[.gov]]

Verisign runs 2 of the world's 13 root servers: a.root-servers.net and j.root-servers.net, which are considered national IT assets by the U.S. Federal government.<ref name="factsheet"></ref> Verisign's average daily [[DNS|Domain Name System]] (DNS) query load for the first quarter of 2012 was 66 billion, with a peak of 74 billion; this represents a daily average increase of 4 percent over the previous quarter, while the peak decreased 37 percent.<ref>[http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/internet-grows-to-more-than-233-million-domain-names-in-the-first-quarter-of-2012-nasdaq-vrsn-1679901.htm Internet Grows to More than 233 million Domain names In The First Quarter]. Market Wire. Published 2012 July 13.</ref>

Verisign runs two of the world's thirteen root servers: a.root-servers.net and j.root-servers.net, which are considered national IT assets by the U.S. Federal government.<ref name="factsheet"></ref> Verisign's average daily [[DNS|Domain Name System]] (DNS) query load for the first quarter of 2012 was 66 billion, with a peak of 74 billion; this represents a daily average increase of 4 percent over the previous quarter, while the peak decreased 37 percent.<ref>[http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/internet-grows-to-more-than-233-million-domain-names-in-the-first-quarter-of-2012-nasdaq-vrsn-1679901.htm Internet Grows to More than 233 million Domain names In The First Quarter]. Market Wire. Published 2012 July 13.</ref>

Verisign was also well-known for its authentication services, which included business authentication services such as implementing and operating secure networks, utilizing [[SSL]] protocol, encrypting transactions and communications, and user authentication services such as, identity protection , fraud detection, and public key infrastructure.<ref>[http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=VRSN VRSN]. Yahoo! Finance.</ref> Those services were sold to [[Symantec]] in 2010.<ref name="reuters1">[http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/05/18/verisign-idUSN1816653320100518 UPDATE 2-Symantec close to buying VeriSign unit -- source]. Reuters. Published 2010 May 18.</ref> Prior to selling those services, Verisign had 3,000,000 certificates in operation, making it the largest[[CA| Certificate Authority]] behind the encryption and authentication on the Internet.<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verisign Verisign, En.Wikipedia.org]</ref>

Verisign was also well-known for its authentication services, which included business authentication services such as implementing and operating secure networks, utilizing [[SSL]] protocol, encrypting transactions and communications, and user authentication services such as identity protection, fraud detection, and public key infrastructure.<ref>[http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=VRSN VRSN]. Yahoo! Finance.</ref> Those services were sold to [[Symantec]] in 2010.<ref name="reuters1">[http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/05/18/verisign-idUSN1816653320100518 UPDATE 2-Symantec close to buying VeriSign unit -- source]. Reuters. Published 2010 May 18.</ref> Prior to selling those services, Verisign had 3,000,000 certificates in operation, which made it the largest[[CA| Certificate Authority]] behind the encryption and authentication on the Internet.<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verisign Verisign, En.Wikipedia.org]</ref>

In October, 2011, Verisign's registry management for [[.com]] domains passed the 100 million mark.<ref>[http://domainincite.com/com-passed-100-million-mark-in-october/ Com Passed 100 million mark in October]</ref> In quarter 1 2012, its figures showed that it held more than 50% of all registrations for all TLDs.<ref>[http://www.trefis.com/stock/vrsn/articles/108265/verisign-sits-pretty-at-39-registered-half-of-all-domain-names/2012-03-14 Verisign Sites Pretty at 39 Registered Half of All Domain Names, Trefis.com]</ref>  By the end of quarter 2 of 2012, Verisign had 240 million domain names over all of the TLDs it operates, with .com and .net holding 49% of the TLD market share, a drop of 2% from quarter 1.<ref>[http://www.trefis.com/stock/vrsn/articles/146666/verisigns-dropping-com-and-net-is-a-troubling-trend/2012-10-03 Verisign’s Dropping .com And .net Is A Troubling Trend, trefis.com]</ref>

In October 2011, Verisign's registry management for [[.com]] domains passed the 100 million mark.<ref>[http://domainincite.com/com-passed-100-million-mark-in-october/ Com Passed 100 million mark in October]</ref> In the first quarter of 2012, figures showed that it held more than 50% of registrations for all TLDs.<ref>[http://www.trefis.com/stock/vrsn/articles/108265/verisign-sits-pretty-at-39-registered-half-of-all-domain-names/2012-03-14 Verisign Sites Pretty at 39 Registered Half of All Domain Names, Trefis.com]</ref>  By the end of 2012's second quarter, Verisign had 240 million domain names across all of the TLDs it operates, with .com and .net holding 49% of the TLD market share, a drop of 2% from the first quarter.<ref>[http://www.trefis.com/stock/vrsn/articles/146666/verisigns-dropping-com-and-net-is-a-troubling-trend/2012-10-03 Verisign’s Dropping .com And .net Is A Troubling Trend, trefis.com]</ref>

== Products and Services ==

== Products and Services ==

Verisign provides its services through two divisions, its Internet Services division and the Security Service Division. The Internet Services division includes Naming & Directory Services such as domain name registration for [[.com]] and [[.net]], and DNS-related and [[RFID]] services.

Verisign provides its services through two divisions, its Internet Services division and the Security Service Division. The Internet Services division includes Naming & Directory Services such as domain name registration for [[.com]] and [[.net]], and DNS-related and [[RFID]] services.

In January, 2012, Verisign raised the wholesale prices of [[.com]] and [[.net]] registration by 7%, increasing the price from $7.34 to $7.85. [[Registrar]]s generally passed the price increase on to customers, and some used it to raise their own prices beyond the 7% increase, with some increasing prices by 10 and 12 percent.<ref>[http://www.elliotsblog.com/registrars-increasing-prices-more-than-the-verisign-price-increase-7188 REgistrars Increasing Prices more than the Verisign Price Increase, ElliotsBlog.com]</ref>

In January 2012, Verisign raised the wholesale prices of [[.com]] and [[.net]] registration by 7%, increasing the price from $7.34 to $7.85. [[Registrar]]s generally passed the price increase on to their customers. Some used it to raise their own prices beyond the 7% increase, by increasing prices by 10 to 12 percent.<ref>[http://www.elliotsblog.com/registrars-increasing-prices-more-than-the-verisign-price-increase-7188 Registrars Increasing Prices more than the Verisign Price Increase, ElliotsBlog.com]</ref>

In its 2012 10-K report, Verisign identified [[ARI Registry Services]], [[Neustar]], [[Afilias]], and [[Nominet]] as its primary competitors.<ref>[https://investor.verisign.com/secfiling.cfm?filingid=1193125-12-77600 10k Filing, Investor.Verisign.com]</ref>

In its 2012 10-K report, Verisign identified [[ARI Registry Services]], [[Neustar]], [[Afilias]], and [[Nominet]] as its primary competitors.<ref>[https://investor.verisign.com/secfiling.cfm?filingid=1193125-12-77600 10k Filing, Investor.Verisign.com]</ref>

===Managed DNS===

===Managed DNS===

Verisign's in-house [[DNS]] services are a globally deployed constellation of sites to offer a cloud-based DNS hosting service that enables organizations of all sizes with critical online systems to confidently move support for DNS resolution outside of their internal teams. Given Verisign's expertise and scale, their services reliably optimize availability and performance at what would be a fraction of the combined costs for system administrator time, patching, hardware purchase, deployment, maintenance, and bandwidth required to support DNS management internally. Using a secure Web-based portal, Verisign Managed DNS customers maintain secure, exclusive, and direct control over DNS data; including IP address, MX records, SOA values, aliases, PTR records, NS records, and text records. The portal also provides real-time record propagation, record-level control of time-to-live (TTL) settings, and zone file error-checking to reduce DNS outages from human error.<ref>[http://www.linkedin.com/company/verisign/verisign-managed-dns-483286/product?trk=biz_product Managed DNS, Products, LinkedIn.com]</ref>

Verisign's in-house [[DNS]] services are comprised of a globally-deployed constellation of sites offering cloud-based hosting solutions which enable organizations with critical online systems to confidently move support for DNS resolution outside of their internal teams. Given Verisign's expertise and scale, their services reliably optimize availability and performance at what would be a fraction of the combined costs for system administrator time, patching, hardware purchase, deployment, maintenance, and bandwidth required to support DNS management internally. Using a secure Web-based portal, Verisign Managed DNS customers maintain secure, exclusive, and direct control over their DNS data, which includes IP address, MX records, SOA values, aliases, PTR records, NS records, and text records. The portal also provides real-time record propagation, record-level control of time-to-live (TTL) settings, and zone file error-checking to reduce DNS outages from human error.<ref>[http://www.linkedin.com/company/verisign/verisign-managed-dns-483286/product?trk=biz_product Managed DNS, Products, LinkedIn.com]</ref>

Verisign first launched managed DNS programs in 2003; however, in August, 2010, its services were relaunched with a focus on large organizations that depend on optimized and reliable DNS. When announcing their DNS service launch, it was noted by that their experience managing the large [[.com]], [[.net]], and other [[Root Zone|root zone]] files makes them a clear competitor in what was, at the time, a relatively small group of DNS service providers. Their DNS services are part of the larger package of iDefense and [[DDoS]] protection services.

Verisign first launched managed DNS programs in 2003; however, in August 2010, its services were relaunched with a focus on large organizations that depend on optimized and reliable DNS. When announcing their DNS service launch, it was noted that the company's experience managing the large [[.com]], [[.net]], and other [[Root Zone|root zone]] files makes it a clear competitor in what was, at the time, a relatively small group of DNS service providers. Their DNS services are part of the larger package of iDefense and [[DDoS]] protection services.

Verisign is able to claim fast-action responses times given its globally deployed DNS servers, reliable content delivery networks, and directive location services. This means that an end-user is seeing faster loading times on a page. This is part of their Global Load Server Balancing (GLSB), which also enables automatic fail-over; in the event that a server goes down, clients will be redirected to an alternative server. Other features include split DNS so that you can maintain separate name spaces for internal and external clients.<ref>[http://www.networkcomputing.com/cloud-computing/verisign-enters-the-managed-dns-market/229501233?pgno=2 Verisign Enters the Managed DNS Market, NetworkComputing.com]</ref>

Verisign is able to claim fast responses times given its globally deployed DNS servers, reliable content delivery networks, and directive location services. This is part of its Global Load Server Balancing (GLSB), which also enables automatic fail-over, which means that in the event that a server goes down, affected clients will then be redirected to an alternative server. Other features include split DNS for the maintenance of separate name spaces for internal and external clients.<ref>[http://www.networkcomputing.com/cloud-computing/verisign-enters-the-managed-dns-market/229501233?pgno=2 Verisign Enters the Managed DNS Market, NetworkComputing.com]</ref>

Since March, 2011, Verisign's DNS services include full support for [[DNSSEC|DNS Security Extensions]] (DNSSEC) compliance features and Geo Location capabilities. It facilitates the process of managing DNSSEC by signing all zone files in a customer's account, continually checking the status of DNSSEC keys to ensure they are valid, and automatically publishing new keys after the existing ones expire, which is considered the most challenging component of DNSSEC. The Geo Location capabilities allow customers to differentiate responses to DNS queries and optimize network performance, which in turn allows Verisign's customers to deliver location-specific content, offers, and advertisements more relevant to a potential customer.<ref>[http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/verisign-enhances-its-managed-dns-service-with-full-support-dnssec-compliance-geo-location-nasdaq-vrsn-1420929.htm Verisign Enhances Its Managed DNS Services, MarketWire.com] Retrieved 15 November 2012</ref>

Since March 2011, Verisign's DNS services include full support for [[DNSSEC|DNS Security Extensions]] (DNSSEC) compliance features and Geo Location capabilities. It facilitates the process of managing DNSSEC by signing all zone files in a customer's account, continually checking the status of DNSSEC keys to ensure they are valid, and automatically publishing new keys after the existing ones expire, which is considered the most challenging component of DNSSEC. The Geo Location capabilities allow customers to differentiate responses to DNS queries and optimize network performance, which in turn allows Verisign's customers to deliver location-specific content, offers, and advertisements more relevant to potential customers.<ref>[http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/verisign-enhances-its-managed-dns-service-with-full-support-dnssec-compliance-geo-location-nasdaq-vrsn-1420929.htm Verisign Enhances Its Managed DNS Services, MarketWire.com] Retrieved 15 November 2012</ref>

Verisgn's DNS network has to have a capacity 100 times the peak it sees in a year.<ref name="ITWorld">[http://www.itworld.com/security/126672/verisign-service-shields-small-e-tailers-ddos-attacks Verisign Service Shields Small eTailers DDoS Attacks, ITworld.com] Retrieved 15 November 2012.</ref>

In order to maintain a position as a top-level Internet domain, Verisign's DNS network has to have a capacity 100 times the peak load it sees in a year.<ref name="ITWorld">[http://www.itworld.com/security/126672/verisign-service-shields-small-e-tailers-ddos-attacks Verisign Service Shields Small eTailers DDoS Attacks, ITworld.com] Retrieved 15 November 2012.</ref>

===DDoS Protection Services===

===DDoS Protection Services===