Trusted Community Representative

Revision as of 02:01, 24 November 2011 by Andrew (talk | contribs) (Main TCRs)

TCR or Trusted Community Representative is a term given by ICANN to those who hold the keys to DNSSEC of Internet. Every TCR has been given a part of the master key. The first key signing ceremony took place on 16th June 2010. ICANN has taken this decision to avoid any terrorist attack or any other catastrophic event on the Internet. If it ever happened, the TCRs will meet at one place, generate a master key and will reboot the DNS. They are not rebooting the entire Internet, as many news outlets have stated, but rather rebooting the DNSSEC protocols, implemented in 2010, that protect the DNS.[1] There are twenty-one TCRs selected by ICANN around the globe.[2][3]

Every TCR is given two identical copies of a smartcard, sealed in a tamper-evident bag, that contain encrypted parts of the root DNSSEC key.

Current TCRs

Main TCRs

There are seven main recovery key share holders, five of them are needed to meet in a secure location in the US should the DNS falter. This set-u also effectively prevents any one single person from turning DNSSEC on or off.[4] The seven main representatives are:[5]

Crypto Officers for the US East Coast Facility

ICANN selected backup members as well. They are:

Crypto Officers for the US West Coast Facility

Backup Crypto Officers

Backup Recovery Key Share Holders

References