New Open Source DNS Server Released Today

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS, OXFORD, UK and MOUNTAIN VIEW,
CA, May 20 (MARKET WIRE) --
Unbound -- a new open source alternative to the BIND domain name system (DNS)
server -- makes its worldwide debut today with the public release of Unbound
1.0 at http://unbound.net.

Released to open source developers by NLnet Labs, VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:
VRSN), Nominet, and Kirei, Unbound is a validating, recursive, and caching DNS
server designed as a high-performance alternative for BIND (Berkeley Internet
Name
Domain). Unbound will be supported by NLnet Labs.

An essential component of the Internet, the DNS ties domain names (such as
www.verisign.com) to the IP addresses and other information that Web browsers
need to access and interact with specific sites. Though it is unknown to the
vast majority of Web users, DNS is at the heart of a range of Internet-based
services beyond Web browsing, including email, messaging and Voice Over Internet
Protocol (VOIP) telecommunications.

Although BIND has been the de facto choice for DNS servers since the
1980s,a desire to seek an alternative server that excels in security,
performanceand ease of use prompted an effort to develop an open source DNS
implementation. Unbound is the result of that effort. Mostly deployed by
ISPs and enterprise users, Unbound will also be available for embedding in
customer devices, such as dedicated DNS appliances and ADSL modems.

By making Unbound code available to open source developers, its
originatorshope to enable rapid development of features that have not
traditionally been
associated with DNS. One is an implementation of DNSSEC, a security enhancement
that Unbound adds to the DNS protocol and that is essential to help protect
DNS transactions. The only open source DNS implementations that support the
DNSSEC
standard are Unbound and BIND.

"We have released the software under the BSD license that allows use in
other products without any major restrictions," said Olaf Kolkman,
directorof NLnet Labs, a not-for-profit research and development foundation in
the
Netherlands. "We hope that making our software freely available will aid the
deployment of DNSSEC, which fits straight into NLnet Labs charter."

"Although simplicity and performance have always been primary goals for
Unbound, we have placed extra attention on security features, particularly since
DNSSEC is not yet deployed widely," said Wouter Wijngaards, lead Unbound
developer at NLnet Labs. "Unbound provides defenses against forgery while
suffering minimal degradation in performance. In addition, we have worked
hard to produce well documented, readable and elegant code. With that we try
to make the barrier for security audit and code review as low as possible."

Four Years in the Making

Unbound was architected in January of 2004 by Jakob Schlyter of Kirei and
Roy
Arends of Nominet. VeriSign and EP.Net funded development of the prototype,
which was built by David Blacka and Matt Larson of VeriSign. Late in 2006, NLnet
Labs joined the effort, writing an implementation in C based on the
existing prototype and using experience NLnet Labs gained during the development
of NSD, a DNS server targeted at information publishers.

"The prototype of Unbound demonstrated that we had made good architectural
decisions
and that the complex security algorithms worked. The Java implementation,
however, would never be able to meet the performance characteristics that
real-world
use would demand," said David Blacka, senior research engineer at VeriSign.

Roy Arends, Senior Researcher at Nominet UK, said the Unbound prototype
served "to
swiftly test new interoperability of DNS protocol extensions. The original
modular
design has proved to work well and kept the overall design straightforward and
clean. The Java prototype was used for several new DNS protocol features in use
today."

"The prototype was too promising to shelve. We were happy NLnet Labs could
commit to the development of the C version of Unbound," said Matt Larson,
director of DNS Research at VeriSign. "NLnet Labs has the appropriate expertise
and
are committed to continue support for Unbound."

"Nominet is pleased that the C version of unbound is built with the same
dedication and by the same team that brought us NSD," added Nominet's Arends.

'Fastest caching server we tested'

During its development phase, Unbound was tested extensively at NLnet
Labs.Meanwhile, a number of volunteers have deployed development releases in
their labs and production networks.

"We are very impressed with Unbound," said Jan-Piet Mens, author of the
forthcoming book, "Alternative DNS Servers." "It is great code, very
versatile, and it is the fastest caching server we tested."

NLnet Labs offers support for Unbound through a bug-tracking system and user
mailing lists. "We realize that people will run this code in critical
environments, and NLnet Labs is committed to actively supporting Unbound," added
NLnet Lab's Kolkman. "Should we ever cease to support Unbound, we will
announce this at least two years in advance."

Unbound runs on posix-based operating systems such as Linux, MacOS X,
FreeBSD, and Solaris. The code, its documentation, and additional information
are
all freely available for download at http://unbound.net/.

About NLnet Labs

NLnet Labs (http://www.nlnetlabs.nl), founded in 1999 by the NLnet
Foundation,
is a research and development foundation that focuses on those developments in
Internet technology where bridges between theory and practical deployment
need to be build; areas where development, engineering, and standardization
takes
place. NLnet Labs strives to play an active and relevant role in these areas
through the development of open source software, through participating in
development of open standards, and through the dissemination of knowledge.
Within
that context NLnet Labs has become a recognized expertise centre in the area
of DNS and DNSSEC. NLnet Labs' DNS software has found its way to important
components of the Internet infrastructure and we contribute actively in
multiple facets of the standards development process. A subsidy from the
NLnet Foundation (http://www.nlnet.nl/) is the main source of income for NLnet
Labs.

About VeriSign

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN) is the trusted provider of Internet
infrastructure
services for the networked world. Billions of times each day, VeriSign helps
companies and consumers all over the world engage in communications and
commerce with confidence. Additional news and information about the company
is available at www.verisign.com.

About Nominet

Nominet UK operates at the heart of e-commerce in the UK, running one of the
world's largest Internet registries and managing over six million domain names.
With highly respected industry credentials it is entrusted with the safe, stable
and secure management of the .uk Internet name space. Nominet runs the
technology which locates a computer on the Internet hosting the web site or
email
system you are looking for when you type in a web address or send an email
that ends in .uk.

Nominet is a not-for-profit company with members instead of shareholders and
is
recognized as the .uk domain name registry by the Internet industry and the UK
Government. It is not a governing or regulatory body, but provides a public
service for the .uk namespace on behalf of the UK Internet community.

About Kirei

Kirei AB (http://www.kirei.se), founded in 2005 by Jakob Schlyter and
Fredrik
Ljunggren, is a consultancy company with its main focus on information
security management and network architectures. The Kirei founders has been
working with DNS and DNS Security within the IETF community since 1999 and has
played an active role in the DNSSEC standardization process as well in the
deployment of DNSSEC in several top level domains.

Statements in this announcement other than historical data and information
constitute
forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the
Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of
1934. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause
VeriSign's actual results to differ materially from those stated or
impliedby such forward-looking statements. The potential risks and uncertainties
include,
among others, the uncertainty of future revenue and profitability and potential
fluctuations in quarterly operating results due to such factors as the
inability of VeriSign to successfully develop and market new products and
services and customer acceptance of any new products or services, including
VeriSign domain name services and infrastructure; the possibility that
VeriSign's announced new services may not result in additional customers,
profits or revenues; and increased competition and pricing pressures. More
information about potential factors that could affect the company's business
and financial results is included in VeriSign's filings with the Securities
and Exchange Commission, including in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K
for
the year ended December 31, 2007 and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. VeriSign
undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements after
the
date of this press release.

Copyright 2008 VeriSign, Inc., NLnet Labs and Nominet. All rights
reserved.VeriSign, the VeriSign logo, the checkmark circle, and other
trademarks, service
marks, and designs are registered or unregistered trademarks of VeriSign,
Inc., and its subsidiaries in the United States and in foreign countries. All
other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Copyright 2008, Market Wire, All rights reserved.

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