CIRA Boss Opposes DNS-Blocking Of Online Gambling Sites

The best news for Canadian online gamers in some time has come from Byron Holland, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA). Holland expressed his views through an op-ed article in the Montreal Gazette in connection with the Quebec government's stated intention to institute the DNS-blocking of unauthorized online gambling sites. In recent months the Quebec provincial government has been reiterating its plans to block the web sites of online casino operators that are competing against its own Espacejeux by offering better incentives and odds.

Holland pointed out that DNS-blocking presented both social and technical problems. He said that governments have resorted to this practice but mostly to no effect. It only makes the blocked site more difficult to access. He gave the example of Canadians watching USA Netflix. There are hundreds of services that bypass IP blocking. The domain name system (DNS) is an integral component of Internet operations. It translates domain names into the numeric Internet addresses used by computers. Without going into many details, Holland said that DNS blocking interferes with that process and can have long-term negative impacts on the stability, security and reliability of the Internet. DNS blocking operates by breaking an important security technology that protects Internet users called DNSSEC. This technology adds an end-to-end security layer that verifies the integrity of requests for information online, preventing malicious acts like DNS spoofing and DNS hijacking.

Holland argued that if the Quebec government blocked the online gambling websites other than one hosted by Loto-Québec, the residents of Quebec who wanted to engage in the activity will find a way to bypass the filters. Some of the operators that provide these bypass services are not safe and present security risks to the online gambler that could lead to botnet infection, identity theft or even financial fraud.

Holland briefly touched upon the social harms of DNS-blocking. He said that it amounted to censorship and curbing freedom of expression. There were possibilities of the DNS-blocking being challenged in courts of law. Concluding his op-ed Holland said, “I encourage the Quebec government to not punish the Internet for the actions of a few people. The consequences of engaging in DNS blocking are not worth the gains it expects to see, especially in terms of the security vulnerabilities users may face.” In the past online gaming experts have called upon Canadian provincial governments to improve their online casinos so that players would genuinely want to wager there.

Online Casino Articles

A listing of the newest online casino & gambling related articles that have been added to Canadian Casino Sites can be found featured in the listing below.