Politech archive on ICANN: http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=icann ICANN meets next in Marina del Rey, California from November 13 to 15. -Declan ******* From: "Andy Duff" <andy.duffat_private> To: <declanat_private> Subject: ICANN's interest in Internet security Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2001 17:17:31 +0100 Declan Given your penchant for highlighting "international institutions" who have suddenly become guardians of national security following the events of earlier this month, you might be interested in developments at ICANN, the body set up to coordinate the central functions of the Internet including the DNS (Domain Name System). The ICANN staff have decided that "the November ICANN meetings will focus on stability and security of the Internet's naming and addressing systems and of their operational implementation globally," pushing all other issues off the agenda. This has caused some consternation among those who follow the sometimes bizarre world of ICANN; for comment, you can go to www.icannwatch.org, who consistently write on the unrepresentative and autocratic nature of some of the actions of the ICANN staff. An amusing post today has an anonymous song higlighting some of ICANN's woes - http://www.icannwatch.org/article.php?sid=390&mode=&order=0 - with the fairly sensible line "the network hums along without you and me." From the "Preliminary announcement on the ICANN meetings" - --starts-- [...]given ICANN's global responsibilities for the stability of the Internet's naming and addressing systems and under the new circumstances facing the international community, it would be irresponsible for ICANN not to conduct an in depth assessment of the robustness and security of these systems, and to take steps, if necessary, to strengthen the Internet in these regards. These are urgent matters and of worldwide importance. The Internet is global in reach, as are the threats of terrorism. The events of 11 September offered a stark and tragic reminder of the incalculable importance of a reliable and secure naming and addressing system to support emergency response, personal and other communications, and information sharing. E-mail, instant messaging, and the web, for example, all played essential roles. --ends-- Full text - http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-26sep01.htm and for a feel on how it is being reported so far, this from an Internetnews article --starts-- The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbes is tabling many of its current projects to work on issues that affect the Internet's security and stability, officials said Thursday.[...] Richard Pethia, director of Carnegie Mellon University's CERT Center, said that the current rash of Internet worms, like the Code Red and Nimda, underscore the vulnerabilities of the Internet. "Problems such as the Nimda worm will occur again, and attack technology will evolve to support attacks that are even more virulent and damaging," Pethia said. "Our current solutions are not keeping pace with the increased strength and speed of attacks; our information infrastructures are at risk. Solutions are not simple, but must be pursued aggressively to allow us to keep our information infrastructures operating at acceptable levels of risk." While the examples he was talking about were script viruses, Pethia said the Internet community as a whole, from the governments and organizations down to the individual would need to re-evaluate and educate themselves on security issues. "Additional government support for research, development, and education in computer and network security would have a positive effect on the overall security of the Internet," he concluded. --ends-- Full text - http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article/0,,3_893101,00.html Cheerfully yours Andy Duff New.net ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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