Afilias installs world class DNS infrastructure for the .au internet community in Western Australia

WESTERN AUSTRALIA: JUNE 13, 2018 –Users of .au domains in Western Australia will now have more resilient DNS thanks to the investment of a new dedicated node installed in Perth to serve the state. This includes service to over 375,000, au names registered in the state. 
 
There are currently more than 3.1 million .au domain names registered globally, and these rely on Australia’s .au domain network to operate 24/7, including names in com.au, net.au, org.au, edu.au and gov.au. 
 
The node, or authoritative nameserver for .au domain names, has been rolled out by .au Domain Administration Limited or auDA, the administrator and industry self-regulatory body for Australia’s .au domain space. 
 
Authoritative nameservers act as the internet’s directory, enabling internet users to reach the right website.  Until this week, the nearest directories for names ending in .au were located in Melbourne or Sydney. 
 
auDA CEO, Cameron Boardman said: “The new infrastructure is a commitment and investment in Western Australia as result of auDA’s Registry Transformation Project, established to ensure a world class service for Australia’s country code internet address, .au.”  
 
“The .au domain is critical economic infrastructure for Australian business and government with many small to medium businesses here in Western Australia relying on .au DNS infrastructure to operate 24/7.”  
 
Western Australia’s new nameserver is designed, built and operated by Afilias, one of the world’s most experienced domain name registry servicers. 
 
“With Afilias installing new authoritative DNS service in Western Australia, internet users in the state will now be no more than a few milliseconds away from the information they need. This more distributed, multi-layered directory infrastructure also means there is no single point of failure across the network, which enhances reliability and ensures there is no interruption to the .au service.” 
 
“This new infrastructure not only has state-of-the art capabilities, but the locations are more diversely distributed, making the entire network stronger and smarter. An strengthened infrastructure for connecting to an .au domain locally, or from anywhere in the world, will cement trust in the Australian domain name,” Mr Boardman said.    
 
auDA and Afilias are also working with Australian Government officials, regulatory bodies, and the local internet community on a staggered rollout of these local nameservers across Australia.   
 
From 1 July, Afilias will be responsible for safeguarding the underlying infrastructure supporting all .au addresses.  
 
Patrick Donaldson, Afilias' Operations Manager for Australia said the new installation in Western Australia, combined with broadly distributed Australian and global locations and Afilias’ DNS security measures, means the .au service has state-of-the-art protection against cyber-attacks and damage. 
 
“DNS infrastructure is the heart of the internet’s ability to locate what you need and deliver it to your screen. This is why it is important to have new equipment designed to address today’s reliability, resilience and security challenges. And, equipment that is designed in such a way that even if one, two or even seven of the eight nodes in Australia went down, there would still be a server in Australia to ensure continuous operation of the .au domain,” Mr Donaldson said. 
  
To protect this infrastructure, Afilias is installing a world class system for .au, including:
• Massive capacity: The new .au infrastructure will be massively provisioned to support many multiples of normal traffic. This provisioning is further extended by stand-by secondary capacity.
• Smart DNS: Afilias’ DNS also features advanced analytical functionality that can identify “attacks” such as unusual traffic from known suspicious sources—this traffic can be “filtered out,” leaving capacity available for legitimate queries.
• DNSSEC deployment: Afilias is also deploying “DNS Security Extensions,” which will ensure state of the art security for each website that activates it. 
 
The Afilias .au DNS team will also monitor the system 24/7 and take corrective action immediately if needed. Afilias works with reporting agencies around the world who work to provide alerts about security problems before service can be affected. And security training is provided to all Afilias staff at least quarterly. 

From 1 July, 2018 Afilias Australia Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Afilias plc, will provide DNS and registry services for the .au domain as part of auDA’s Registry Transformation Project. Established in 2000, Afilias supports over 200 TLDs worldwide (e.g. .org and .info), providing service to over 21 million registrations.    
 
ENDS 
 
 
About auDA 
.au Domain Administration Limited (auDA) is the administrator and industry self-regulatory policy body for Australia’s .au domain space. auDA serves to advance and enhance the .au space for the benefit of all Australians. auDA is endorsed by the Australian Government and recognised by the International Corporation for Assigned Numbers and Names (ICANN) as the manager of the .au domain space. auDA is committed to the multi-stakeholder approach to internet governance, representing the interests of .au around the world and plays a vital role in ensuring a stable and secure .au domain space. For more information, visit www.auda.org.au   

About Afilias
Afilias is the world’s second largest domain registry, with millions of domain names under management. Afilias powers a wide variety of top-level domains, including TLDs for countries, cities, brands, communities and generic terms. Afilias’ specialised technology makes Internet addresses more accessible and useful through a broad range of applications, including Internet domain registry services, managed DNS, and mobile Web services. For more information on Afilias services, visit www.afilias.info.     # # # ENDS 
 
Notes to editor To learn more about Afilias follow this link to their blog: