The Secretaries of the Department of Commerce and the Department of Homeland Security, through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), in early January 2018 issued a draft report to further public discussion about enhancing the resilience of the Internet and communications ecosystem against botnets and other automated distributed threats. This report continues work initiated under Presidential Executive Order 13800, “Strengthening the Cyber Security of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure.” The report seeks additional public comment on known and evolving risks within and to the ecosystem and aims to forge consensus on what approaches warrant consideration for the government either to adopt or to encourage. Commenters are asked to evaluate a range of proposed goals and actions to achieve a more resilient ecosystem as well as to address the roles various stakeholders play in achieving and maintaining resiliency of the ecosystem nationally and globally. Comments are due on the draft report by February 12, 2018 and the final report is due the president by May 11, 2018.
Six principal themes emerged from the government’s analysis of prior comments on identifying and mitigating botnet and other cyber threats, namely that:
- Automated distributed attacks are a global problem;
- While effective tools exist, they are not widely used
- Products should be secured during all stages of their life cycle.;
- Improved education and awareness are necessary;
- Current market incentives are misaligned; and
- Automated distributed attacks are an ecosystem-wide challenge.