DNSSEC adoption in Africa dimmed by other challenges

The issue of registry ownership is a major challenge for many African countries. The re-delegation process takes time because most of them do not have the technical requirements to facilitate a smooth transfer, while others are chasing the people holding their domains to discuss how to train the people and transfer the domains.

"When a country is not in control of the ccTLD, the implementation of DNSSEC would not be a priority; Africa must set a road map to have all ccTLDs managed locally in two years. This is very achievable," added Kalu.

Globally, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has taken a clear stand on DNSSEC deployment with test beds and research on deployment; this will definitely encourage registries, said Vika Mpisane, the president of the Africa Top Level Domain organization.

DNSSEC requires the root zone to be signed, which is coordinated by ICANN, and then others in the chain, such as registries and ISPs, can follow.

"To complete the loop to the client, the distribution chain for DNS queries has to be DNSSEC-capable as well. Name servers of registrars, ISPs and other name server providers must be DNS-capable," Kalu said.