[LINK] US ISPs' Antibot and DNSSEC Undertakings

[Roger Clarke]

[Any background on this announcement gratefully received!]

US ISPs commit to new cybersecurity measures
The recommendations from an FCC advisory committee target botnets, 
domain name fraud and Internet route hijacking
Grant Gross
IDG News Service
http://www.itworld.com/government/261194/us-isps-commit-new-cybersecurity-measures

March 22, 2012, 3:06 PM - A group of U.S. Internet service providers, 
including the four largest, have committed to taking new steps to 
combat three major cybersecurity threats, based on recommendations 
from a U.S. Federal Communications Commission advisory committee.

The ISPs, including AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Verizon 
Communications, committed Thursday to implement measures to fight 
botnets, domain name fraud and Internet route hijacking. The FCC's 
Communications, Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council 
(CSRIC) adopted the recommendations for voluntary action by ISPs the 
same day.

[ There's a mass of bureaucracy on the Committee's home-page, and I 
can't quickly see which report(s) is/are relevant: 
http://transition.fcc.gov/pshs/advisory/csric/ ]

Eight wired and wireless ISPs, representing about 80 percent of the 
broadband subscribers in the U.S., are members of CSRIC and signed on 
to the recommendations.

"These actions will have a significant positive impact on Internet 
security," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said. "If you own a PC, 
you'll be significantly better protected against your computer 
[being] taken over by a bad actor, who could destroy your private 
files or steal your personal information. If you shop or bank online, 
you'll be significantly better protected against being directed to an 
illegitimate website and having your credit card number stolen."

The recommendations preserve the open architecture of the Internet 
and protect Internet users' privacy, Genachowski said.

The CSRIC recommendations embraced by the ISPs include an antibot 
code of conduct. ISPs agreed to educate customers about botnets and 
to take steps to identify botnet activity on their networks. ISPs 
will also warn customers about botnet infections on their computers 
and offer assistance to customers with compromised computers, under 
the code of conduct.

The ISPs also committed to implement a set of best practices to 
secure the Internet's Domain Name System by implementing DNSSEC, a 
set of secure protocol extensions designed to prevent DNS spoofing.

CSRIC also recommended that the Internet industry develop an Internet 
Protocol-route highjacking framework, including new technologies and 
practices to limit the number of times that Internet traffic is 
misdirected.

T-Mobile USA, one of the ISPs signing on to the recommendations, 
called cybersecurity an "extremely important issue." The company 
supports voluntary, industrywide deployment of DNSSEC, T-Mobile said 
in a statement.

ISPs will need help from other Internet companies to implement the 
security measures, said Bob Quinn, AT&T's senior vice president for 
federal regulatory affairs.

"DNSSEC is predicated upon a chain of trust across the Internet," he 
wrote in a blog post. "[CSRIC] recommends that key industry segments 
such as banking, healthcare and others sign their respective domains 
and that software developers, such as web-browser developers, study 
how and when to incorporate DNSSEC validation functions into their 
software."

The botnet recommendations see a "significant role" for other 
companies, including security software vendors and operating system 
developers, he added. "Keeping the Internet safe for consumers to 
browse, transact business and communicate is an important objective 
not only for AT&T but any other business that operates online," he 
wrote.


-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/
			            
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law               University of NSW
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University