ISPs urged to back secure routing standards

The US Federal Communications Commission has called on internet service providers to embrace secure routing standards in a bid to cut down internet route hijacking.

Chairman Julius Genachowski said in an address to the Bipartisan Policy Centre [pdf] that misrouted traffic by bad actors, "whether intentional or accidental, is clearly unacceptable".

He said that network operators are "making real progress" in the development of secure routing standards that could mitigate some of the risks around the misrouting of internet data through untrusted networks.

Genachowski "strongly" urged ISPs to embrace the standards "and plan to implement them when they are ready".

"Costs of implementation can be minimised by putting in place the new technical standards during routine hardware and software upgrades," he said.

"The benefits of ISPs taking these steps to eliminate accidentally misrouted traffic would be enormous."

The FCC chairman also took aim at botnets, again calling on ISPs to develop an industry-wide code of conduct to combat them, similar to the iCode that operates in Australia.

The development of such a code has been on the radar of US officials for at least the past nine months.

In May last year, the United States hosted representatives from Australia's internet industry at the White House to discuss the potential to introduce a voluntary code of conduct among American internet service providers.

The US Department of Homeland Security also flagged the strategy in a request for information document issued in October 2011 to research ways to reduce botnet infections.

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