DULLES, VA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 02/02/11 -- VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN), the trusted provider of Internet infrastructure services for the networked world, has been selected by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to operate the nation's mission-critical domain name registry for .gov.

Following a competitive RFP and evaluation process, the GSA granted Verisign the authority to provide designated domain name registration services to federal, state and local governments operating sites under the .gov and fed.us domain names. The services include processing requests, help desk assistance and operation of the authoritative .gov Domain Name System (DNS) servers. Verisign also will support the implementation of DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) on .gov and fed.us.

From federal organizations like Congress and the Federal Bureau of Investigations to state and county governments and small municipalities, .gov is the registry of choice for the vast majority of government domains. In addition, agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service (fs.fed.us) and U.S. District Court in New Mexico (nmcourt.fed.us) rely on the fed.us registry to reliably serve many more sites and the citizens who visit them.

"Verisign is honored to be granted the responsibility of operating the .gov and fed.us domain name registries," said Mark McLaughlin, president and chief executive officer of Verisign. "Our unmatched operational excellence and proven security expertise offers the GSA a trusted and experienced partner, poised to protect its infrastructure against threats now and into the future. In addition to providing GSA the best in industry service to reliably meet its evolving demands, we are prepared to deliver value-added services that the GSA and its customers may require."

In making its selection, the GSA determined Verisign readily addressed all of the items it identified as essential for operating the .gov domain name registry. These included: