The 14 people who control the security of the world wide web...

With billions of users around the world - not to mention billions of dollars' worth of business reliant on its very existence on a daily basis - our dependence on the internet is obvious.

Families have anti-virus software on their home computers to guard against hackers, while businesses and public bodies invest in heavy-duty firewalls and safety systems in an effort to protect themselves from outside attacks.

But who is looking after the internet itself, the central system that operates the world wide web, and ensuring that it does not fall victim to hackers?

The answer is that there are seven specially selected people who each hold the keys to the central directory of the web - literally so.

They are the guardians of the domain name system (DNS), the register that links web addresses such as 'dailymail.co.uk' to IP addresses - the series of numbers which differentiate Internet-linked computers. Full story...

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