21 September 2016

The following is summary of the most recent IEEE Global Internet Governance Monitor report. To access the full reports containing additional details and other news items, please join the Internet Technology Policy Community on IEEE Collabratec.

In European news, the Chief of GCHQ Ciaran Martin, hopes for the practice of using DNS filters to prevent cyber-attacks to become a common place practice in the organisation. He described this as a “flagship project”, which aims to stop ‘bad web addresses’, disguised as legitimate domains which spread malware and viruses.

Coding and computer science are to be at the forefront of Ireland’snew education plan, which aims to give Ireland the best education system in Europe by 2026. The plan will see cyber skills (including coding) instructed to children at primary school level.

President of the European Commission Claude Junker has announced plans in his State of the Union address to offer free public wifi in public spaces in all EU towns and villages. The policy is part of their strategy to achieve “full deployment” of 5G by 2025. It is likely to exclude the UK assuming article 50 is implemented before 2020. This week Junker also postponed a bill allowing EU countries to export surveillance software. The Bill will now be discussed at next weeks meeting.

The US Government’s plan to transfer control of the internet to a non-governmental international body could well hold up a Senate Spending Bill, as some Republicans, led by Sen. Ted Cruz, are fearful of giving states with stricter freedom of speech laws greater control over the internet.

The US Department of Transportation has produced a 15-point safety assessment for self-driving cars, in which cyber security and privacy protection are of the foremost concerns.

Director of the CIA John Brennan has said that he believes it is highly likely that there will be more leaks in the US Presidential election, before the result is announced in November. He said these threats come from both hostile nation states and individuals seeking to undermine the American democratic system.

A study carried out by Cyber Security Ventures has estimated that there will be 1.5 million jobs in cyber security by 2019 (most of which will be in the US). At present unemployment in the cyber security industry is effectively zero, according to their research.

Wider afield, counter terrorism and cyber security were on the agenda at a meeting of BRICS Security Advisors in New Delhi. They also discussed greater data sharing practices and cooperation between technical and law enforcement agencies.

The Internet Society (ISOC), Trivandrum chapter, is to assist with preparing India for a key role in global Internet governance, as the U.S. government prepares to hand over the Domain Naming System (DNS) to a multistakeholder arrangement. Also in India The Internet Freedom Foundation group is seeking to become a political party, to continue fighting against net neutrality laws in the country.

Research in Australia has found that the risk of cyber securityattacks has increased, according to 64% of Chief Information Officers in the past 12 months. This is primarily due to an IT skills shortage in the country.