US ISPs Agreed to Combat Major Cyber Security Threats

While US ISPs get ready to fight piracy by watching for illegal content downloads (here) they have also agreed to ".. better secure their communications networks and protect consumers and business".

  

An FCC press release announced that ".. an industry advisory group for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Communications, Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC), unanimously adopted recommendations for voluntary action by Internet service providers (ISPs) to combat three major cyber security threats, including botnets, attacks on the Domain Name System (DNS), and Internet route hijacking .. Chairman Genachowski applauds voluntary commitments by nation’s largest Internet Service Providers, including AT&T, CenturyLink, Comcast, Cox, Sprint, Time Warner Cable, T-Mobile and Verizon".

• Under the Anti-Bot Code, ISPs agree to educate consumers about the botnet threat, take steps to detect botnet activity on their networks, make consumers aware of botnet infections on their computers, offer assistance to consumers whose computers are infected and collaborate with other service providers that have also adopted the Anti-Bot Code
    
• DNSSEC is a set of secure protocol extensions that prevent such fraudulent activity
    
• CSRIC recommended an industry framework to prevent Internet route hijacking, which is the erroneous routing of Internet traffic through potentially untrustworthy networks 

Some examples from other countries: Sri-Lanka, Nigeria, Egypt, India, Korea, Argentina. AT&T also announced several security initiatives (here , here and here).    

See "FCC advisory committee adopts recommendations to minimize three major cyber threats, including an anti-bot code of conduct, ip route hijacking industry framework and secure DNS best practices" - here and more details (here).