The Coming Move to IPv6

            IPv4 addresses have been running out increasingly in the past few months and have recently run out completely. In a recent blog written by Sean Kerner of internetnews.com (2011), he states that “The last five blocks of Internet addresses available under IPv4 protocol were allocated by ICANN, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, in a ceremony on Thursday, February 3, 2011 in Miami.” What does this mean for corporations? It means corporations now need to start thinking and preparing for the need to support IPv6 protocol for their customers and employees. IPv6 is the next step in the Internet evolution, which allows for an IP address of /64. A quick explanation of the difference between the number of address spaces available for IPv4 and IPv6 are IPv4 has a total of 4,294,967,296 addresses which are now all used up and for IPv6 the number of addresses available for use are 2^128, which is a substantial increase of usable address space for companies. This will allow companies who need or want to expand their IT network and infrastructure the chance to do so. They can then take advantage of more address space and security by using other new technologies like mobile technology and cloud computing, which will increase their capacity to better help their current and future customers.

This movement has already begun moving around the globe, but the movement in the United States at best has been sluggish. If the U.S. doesn’t want to get left behind there must be significant Federal push much like the Digital TV transition where the Federal Government set and announced a date for the television industry to make these changes immediately. “China, Japan and South Korea all have mandated adoption of the next-generation protocol, so companies in other countries will be left behind if they don't start using it, said Alex Lightman, chairman and chief executive officer of Innofone.com Inc., an IPv6 training and consulting company in Santa Monica, California” (Lawson 2006). Government agencies like the Department of Defense of have been using IPv6 since 2008 but much more awareness is needed. Until the average American understands the benefits of IPv6 the move will likely continue to be slow.

               
           Of course with any move to a new system companies want to know how much it will cost them. The actual configuration of changing over to IPv4 to IPv6 requires very little technical effort depending on the size of the company. Businesses like Yahoo, Google, and Facebook, whose Web sites generate billions of visits a day, have been leading the charge towards IPv6 and are relaying the notion to users that this will be the future of the Internet. The real issue of making this switch forward is having some users left on IPv4 while others use the new and improved IPv6 protocol. According to Stephen Lawson (2011), a writer for pcworld.com, this issue can be solved by companies that have started making the switch to IPV6. In most cases companies will be using a “dual-stack” configuration wherein each request made by the client will be associated with its version of the protocol. This allows both users to view the webpage and not have any conflict. There are known problems with using this configuration though, “according to Salient Federal Solutions, a leader in information technology security, the number one attack is a result of IPv6 traffic being tunneled across IPv4 networks, which uses a mechanism called Teredo which is built into both Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows 7” (Marsen 2011). This mechanism was created by Microsoft for the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 but with companies moving very slowly this exploit of tunneling into companies will continue.  Today almost all companies are aware of this situation and should be making efforts in IT projects now that help enable thier customers to use IPv6 securely in the future.

               
            Overall with more customers and internet users in general becoming more aware of IPv6 and with companies wanting to expand their IT network with iPhones, iPads, and other mobile technology the need to switch and secure their systems becomes increasingly more relevant and compelling, and choosing not to make this switch in a timely fashion can pose a security risk the longer a company waits.

References

Flynn, L. J. (2011). Drumming Up More Addresses in the Internet. New York Times. Retrieved September 18, 2011 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/technology/15internet.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2

Kerner, S. M. (2011). ICANN Marks the End of IPV4, Looks to IPv6. Retrieved September 18 2011 http://www.internetnews.com/infra/article.php/3923436/ICANN+Marks+End+of+IPv4+Looks+to+IPv6.htm

Lawson, S. (2006). U.S. Enterprises: Don’t be left behind on IPv6. Retrieved September 18 2011 http://www.infoworld.com/t/networking/us-enterpises-dont-be-left-behind-ipv6-972

Lawson, S. (2011). 10 Things to Know About the Move to IPv6. Retrieved September 18 2011 http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/229686/10_things_to_know_about_the_move_to_ipv6.html

Marsan, C. D. (2011). Scariest IPv6 Attack Scenarios. Retrieved September 18 2011 http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/238848/scariest_ipv6_attack_scenarios.html