WikiLeaks and the Business of DNS

Mon Dec 13, 2010 by Dan Stieglitz

It would be a nightmare for any business owner: you wake up to find a grand smear campaign on the internet, orchestrated by one of your competitors, and spreading like wildfire. Even worse, later you discover it was not orchestrated at all but a case of mistaken identity. And aside from the brand problems you now think you might have, your problem is related to a highly-controversial, politically-sensitive, media-hyped website with vocal supporters on all sides of the issue. How do you turn this around?

With any minor dramatic liberties aside, this is Mark Jeftovic's reality right now. His DNS provider, mistaken for another, was targeted by WikLeaks supporters in a grand case of mistaken identity. So Mark embraced the reality presented to him and decided to host WikiLeaks-- after all, the damage was already done. On the media stage it plays out as a comedy: Jeftovic blames "half-wit drones with no simple fact-checking abilities" for the attacks; he's been labeled a "traitor" by some although he's Canadian (fact checking, indeed); and it might have a happy ending for Jeftovic. Although he's lost some customers, commenters on his site have already indicated they'll be sending more business his way. 

Perhaps the most positive thing to come out of the WikiLeaks controversy is the spotlight on the importance--both economically and technologically--of DNS. For the most part, unless you were technologically-employed or inclined, you didn't know what DNS was or what role it played in every single internet request you made. That's now changed, as the role DNS has in both the deployment, takedown, and subsequent re-deployment of WikiLeaks on the internet plays out in front of the millions of unsuspecting DNS users worldwide.

There was nothing political about the original DNS takedown of WikiLeaks: it was purely done to prevent a DDoS attack from taking down hundreds of innocent domains. However politicized the issue gets, all of us in the industry are still businesses and need to do what we can to survive. If that means taking down sites to prevent damage, or hosting controversial sites to get publicity, then so be it. What all DNS providers should do is continue to try and get DNS publicity. The more people know about how the internet works, the better.

"DNS refers to the Domain Name System, which is something like a switchboard for the Internet," writes Ian Austen in today's New York Times article. That's a good start. We'll take it.