The voluntary principles are designed to mitigate the threat of botnets through collaboration, education, and flexible practices that can apply to a wide range of participants and business models, the IBG said in a statement.
The IBG’s principles call on industry, government, and consumers to share cyber responsibilities by employing reasonable technologies to thwart the effectiveness of botnets across all phases of the mitigation lifecycle; coordinate across sectors in order to better analyze, prevent, and combat threats; confront the problem globally through cross-border collaboration; report lessons learned with partners in the internet ecosystem; educate users by making information and resources available to them; preserve flexibility for responses by different entities to an ever-evolving threat environment; promote innovation to foster technological advances; respect privacy; and navigate the complex legal environment.
Commenting on the principles, Howard Schmidt, the soon-departing White House cybersecurity coordinator, said that the “issue of botnets is larger than any one industry or country. This is why partnership is so important. The principles the IBG is announcing today draw on expertise from the widest range of players with leadership coming from across the private sector, and partnering with government on items like education, consumer privacy, and law enforcement.”
Craig Spiezle, president of the Online Trust Alliance, said about the principles: “We have a shared responsibility to commit resources to address the growing threats from botnets, which threaten to undermine the digital economy. Preserving online trust and confidence needs to be a priority and the broad adoption of the Industry Botnet Group principles is an important step towards protecting the internet.”