A global internet shutdown is likely to happen in the next two days as the key domain servers will reportedly undergo a routine maintenance, reported Russia Today quoting ICANN.

The Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is reportedly carrying out maintenance work in the next 48 hours. The California-based ICANN maintains the registry of domain names and IP addresses on the internet.

The maintenance work involves a change in the cryptographic key which can help in protecting the Domain Name System (DNS) or commonly known as the address book of the internet. This has been necessitated to counter the rising incidents of cyber attacks, the ICANN said.

“To further clarify, some internet users might be affected if their network operators or Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have not prepared for this change. However, this impact can be avoided by enabling the appropriate system security extensions,” ICANN said in a statement quoted by the paper.

The DNS is the web addresses or the links we type in the browser in order to visit the website we punch into the web browsers post which it will match in the ICANN database, where all the web domains are listed, with the correct domains and internet protocol (IP) addresses.

However, the internet shutdown is unlikely to make a significant impact across the globe.

Internet will be available but there are chances that it will be difficult for one to access a few websites or making transactions during the shutdown period.

The ICANN maintenance occurs in batches, it means only some websites will be unavailable for a certain duration of time in the shutdown period. Once the websites have been updated with the revamped security measures, it will be available again.

According to ICANN, only one percent (around 35 million users), of the total internet users around the world are expected to be impacted by the shutdown.

First Published:Oct 12, 2018 4:06 PM IST