Traditionally the air transport community has had rigid standards for inter-system communications pinned to the underlying centralized network. However with advent of IP communications over the Internet fast becoming the de facto standards for business to business transactions and as the community begins to embrace this new technology, the absence of well defined standards restricts the flexibility and scalability of the solution.

In ‘News from .aero’ issue 10, we discussed the work that was being done to provide greater security for domain access through the security protocol DNS Security Extensions – otherwise known as DNSSec. Eight months on, progress may be tentative, but the landscape is changing.

DNSSec is one of those abbreviations that insiders understand, but which all too easily causes confusion and concern for others. However, it is a subject that all those involved in domain management and Internet operations need to understand.

The International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) recently published a report on "domain hijacking" and its consequences. It should be essential reading for all .aero domain owners.

The report, "Domain Name Hijacking: Incidents, Threats, Risks, and Remedial Actions", provides a succinct summary of the definition and risks of domain hijacking:

In June SITA completed the trial of a new flight status service operated in collaboration with Geneva International Airport. The service received very positive feedback from users.

As part of the pilot operation, a cross-sector task force has developed a policy to guide the registration and use of domain names needed to operate such services. This policy will ensure that future similar services can be operated by multiple providers yet retain the consistency so much needed by the traveling public.