The key asset of Internet is the domain name directory known as DNS. A root name server is a DNS server that answers requests for the root namespace domain, and redirects requests for a particular top-level domain to that TLD’s name servers.
There are currently thirteen root name servers around the world. Most of the servers reside in the United States while the rest exist in multiple locations on different continents. The US government plays a key role in supervising the asset.
In the early hours of Tuesday, three key servers were hit by a barrage of data in what is known as a distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS). There is no evidence of damage proving once again the robustness of the Internet.
The servers under attacks are as follow:
- G-root, G.root-servers.org at Columbus, Ohio, USA
- L-root, L.root-servers.org at Los Angeles, California, USA
- UltraDNS, authoritative for .org and .info TLDs