THE US Department of Homeland Security is insisting that Verisign hand over the master keys of the Internet.

If it succeeds, the US will be able to track DNS Security Extensions (DNSSec) all the way back to the servers that represent the name system's root zone on the Internet.

Effectively it would mean that US spooks could snoop on anyone in the Worldwide wibble and place control of the Interweb tubes firmly in the paws of the US government.

The information that Homeland security is after the "key-signing key", currently held by Verisign, was revealed to the the meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in Lisbon.

Not surprisingly other countries in the world are a little concerned about this. According to the German magazine Heise Online, a representative of the EU Commission said that the matter is being discussed with EU member states.

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which handles route management within the ICANN, could be entrusted with the task of keeping the keys. But the US authorities claims the right to oversee ICANN/IANA.