26 October 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.

This week the EU Commission has announced plans to boost cyber skills in the European Union, through the introduction of faster internet connections in schools and major public areas, such as transport hubs.

In Ireland this week the Government has followed the lead of the UK Government by publishing plans to build its own Cyber Security centre. The plans will also include an education program to ensure businesses and citizens better follow existing cybersecurity protocols.

Prior to the global Mirai DDoS attack on IoT devices last week, the European Court of Justice has this week sided with website owners in an ongoing legal dispute that will allow websites to store and blacklist IP addresses associated with previous DDoS attacks.

In the United States government officials have stated their confidence that the Presidential Election next month will not be threatened by further Russian email hacks, as they believe the defensive measures taken since the first leak of Democratic Party emails has closed off the avenue of attack for Russian hackers.

Elsewhere Senator Mark Warner has written to the FCC to seek clarification on what role the FCC can play in preventing mass cyberattacks such as last Friday’s Mirai DDoS attack that exploited IoT devices.

The FCC has come in for criticism this week over its proposed new Cyber Privacy rules, as concerns have been raised regarding Chairman Tom Wheeler’s links to net neutrality advocates, particularly given the FCC’s ongoing net neutrality battle with ISPs and wider Telecoms companies.

In Asia this week, Hangzhou Xiongmai Technology, an IoT components specialist from China has accepted its involvement in the Mirai DDoS attack that hijacked parts of the company’s IoT devices in order to shut down several major international websites.

The government of Thailand has been widely condemned this week for introducing a new law that would impose criminal penalties on ISPs based on the actions of users. The law would also place the burden of proof on ISPs to defend themselves rather than on the Government to prosecute them.

In India the telecoms regulator TRAI has announced an open house discussion of its consultation paper on free data, with the intention of also raising the issues surrounding net neutrality.

Elsewhere this week, the Australian Prime Minister’s leading Cyber Security expert has told a Senate committee that the cyber attack on the country’s online census should have been predicted by the Government and IBM the service provider.

In institutional news ICANN has announced a collaboration with Centre de Calcul El-Khawarizmi (CCK) to provide youth education in internet governance, so as to raise awareness and capacity in the country. ITU has also published details of government and industry cooperation agreed to at the Global Standards Symposium, designed to improve security, privacy and trust through the internet.