After two years of testing, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and numbers (ICANN) will launch the DNSSEC-signed DNS root zone this month. The process known as root signing will start this month and be gradually introduced to root servers. It should be finalized by July this year.

Adoption of DNSSEC will increase the complexity of DNS communication and there has been no consensus on whether it will have harmful side effects. Some experts predict that some registries in low bandwidth areas, using old preconfigured equipment, will have problems accessing the Internet while others predict there will be no harmful side effects.

"ICANN is now working with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and VeriSign to ensure that a DNSSEC-signed DNS root zone will be fully available in 2010, with significant progress already made," said Rod Beckstrom, ICANN CEO and president.

A survey conducted by the Country Code Name Supporting Organization found that only 7 percent of country code registries had implemented DNSSEC but Beckstrom says that in 2009, 25 percent of the registries implemented DNSSEC, and 80 percent of the remaining registries plan to adopt but with no timeframe.

"DNSSEC changes authoritative DNS by making it more complex, more brittle (easier to break things) and increases the traffic involved in resolving DNS, all of these point to the fact that maybe a slow adoption of DNSSEC is a good idea," said Calvin Browne, a director at UniForum, the administrator of the .co.za domain name.