Seven People Hold The Keys To The Internet - See Why

t may sound like a scene from a Hollywood movie but it's true. Seven people from all over the world hold the keys to worldwide internet security. Here's how the keys work -



Each of the keys access a safety deposit box, which in turn holds a smartcard, which combines with every other smartcard to generate a master key. That master key controls one of the internet's central security measures known as the domain-name system, or DNS. DNS is what makes it possible for you to enter a web address, like http://www.google.com, instead of typing in the IP address, such as http://74.125.24.72.


The keyholders make sure that each web address is authentic. If they don't exist, millions of fake web addresses could send people to fake and dangerous sites. The master key can reconstruct the entire system if there's a disaster.

The question remains though -How does a person gain this much power? Just an online application.



The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), the private US company that runs the system, only received 40 applications in their initial job posting for 21 positions. The criteria for choosing each keyholder was for their experience all have very long careers in internet security and also for their location, since there are limits on the number of keyholders any one country can have.

Here's the part that you'll definitely love if you're a techie:

Anytime the group has a meeting they undergo extreme security measures: they have to walk through two doors require a smart card, a pin code, and a hand scan in various sequences, then a third door that uses an iris scanner.




There's no limit to how long one keyholder can serve, and in the time the group has existed, only one has resigned.

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