Securing The Root: A Proposal For Distributing Signing Authority

Management of the Domain Name System (DNS) root zone file is a uniquely global policy problem. For the Internet to connect everyone, the root must be coordinated and compatible. While authority over the legacy root zone file has been contentious and divisive at times, everyone agrees that the Internet should be made more secure. A newly standardized protocol, DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC), would make the Internet's infrastructure more secure. In order to fully implement DNSSEC, the procedures for managing the DNS root must be revised. Therein lies an opportunity. In revising the root zone management procedures, we can develop a new solution that diminishes the impact of the legacy monopoly held by the U.S. government and avoids another contentious debate over unilateral U.S. control. In this paper we describe the outlines of a new system for the management of a DNSSEC-enabled root. Our proposal distributes authority over securing the root, unlike another recently suggested method, while avoiding the risks and pitfalls of an intergovernmental power sharing scheme

Regional Address Registries, Governance and Internet Freedom

Regional Internet Address Registries (RIRs) are private, nonprofit and transnational governance entities that evolved organically with the growth of the Internet to manage and coordinate Internet Protocol addresses. The RIR's management of Internet address resources is becoming more contentious and more central to global debates over Internet governance. This is happening because of two transformational problems: 1) the depletion of the IPv4 address space; and 2) the attempt to introduce more security into the Internet routing system. We call these problems "transformational" because they raise the stakes of the RIR's policy decisions, make RIR processes more formal and institutionalized, and have the potential to create new, more centralized control mechanisms over Internet service providers and users. A danger in this transition is that the higher stakes and centralized control mechanisms become magnets for political contention, just as ICANN's control of the DNS root did. In order to avoid a repeat of the problems of ICANN, we need to think carefully about the relationship between RIRs, governments, and Internet freedom. In particular, we need to shield RIRs from interference by national governments, and strengthen and institutionalize their status as neutral technical coordinators with limited influence over other areas of Internet governance

Reinventing Media Activism: Public Interest Advocacy in the Making of U.S. Communication-Information Policy, 1960-2002

This report is a long-term analysis of citizens' collective action to influence public policy toward communication and information. The work discusses in greater detail what is meant by communication and information policy (CIP) and why we think it is worthwhile to study it as a distinctive domain of public policy and citizen action. The report concentrates on citizen action in the United States and looks backwards, tracing the long-term evolutionary trajectory of communications-information advocacy in the USA since the 1960s. We focus on the concept of citizen collective action and explain its relevance to CIP.Research supported by the Ford Foundation's Knowledge, Creativity and Freedom Program. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the School of Information Studies, Syracuse University, or the Ford Foundation

Securing Critical Internet Resources: Influencing Internet Governance through Social Networks and Delegation

Examining the cases of Domain Name System Security (DNSSEC) and the Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI), this dissertation uses principal-agent delegation theory and social network analysis to explain how United States government (USG) agencies influence efforts to secure critical Internet resources. Consistent with a logic of delegation and the prominent role of individuals in Internet governance, USG agencies participated directly and indirectly in the social networks formed around Internet governance institutions. Its participation occurred by delegating responsibility to organizational agents that participated in the DNSSEC and RPKI standardization and policy processes. By doing so, agencies leveraged these individuals\u27 expertise, and in the case of DNSSEC were more successful than expected at achieving adoption of standards and policies consistent with their political and economic interests. However, this ex ante approach of influencing standards and policy outcomes in open and transparent Internet governance institutions has limits. Agencies also relied on an ex post institutional control (specifically a contract with an Internet governance institution) to ensure outcomes related to securing and maintaining oversight of critical Internet resources. These results are important and timely to researchers and policy makers. They contribute to the growing academic field of Internet governance, integrating well known theory from political science and standardization. Given current debate on the appropriate role for governments in Internet governance and securing the Internet, the cases illustrate how governments can be productive contributors as peers in relatively transparent and open Internet governance processes. This stands in contrast to governments\u27 perceived need for a greater oversight role in managing and securing critical Internet resources. The results also suggest that efforts to improve the governance and security of critical Internet resources should pay closer scrutiny to extant contractual relationships between Internet governance institutions and powerful governments, notably the United States, as similar ex post interventions enabled by them could undermine the delegation strategy

Mapping the cybersecurity institutional landscape

© Emerald Publishing LimitedAn exploration of cybersecurity institutional landscape suggests that ex post efforts like botnet mitigation, route monitoring and other activities involving information sharing seem to work under a variety of combinations of governance structures which govern cybersecurity

The effect of institutional constraints on the success of universal service policies: A comparison between Latin America and the World

The purpose of this paper is to determine the effectiveness of universal service programs. The statistical results, which compare the world with Latin America, indicate that universal service funds have not led to increases in the number of fixed telephone lines but they show a positive relationship with the number of public phones. Of the institutional variables that were included, the presence of the regulator as well as its number of employees has a positive relationship with the payphone infrastructure. Overall the research suggests that these programs have positive effects for universal access and governments are encouraged to continue them.Universal service Latin America Institutions Infrastructure Telecommunications

Buying numbers: An empirical analysis of the IPv4 number market

This paper discusses the emergence of a trading market for previously allocated Internet address blocks. The controversies associated with commoditization of Internet addresses, and the way this conflicts with official narratives about migration to a new Internet protocol (IPv6) makes this topic the "elephant in the room" in Internet governance circles. Drawing on RIR and Whois records, it compiles factual information about the number of address blocks that have been traded and their size as a percentage of the overall address space, the pricing of these resources and whether the traded addresses are being routed or not. The paper shows how this data bears on policy issues, such as needs assessment and property rights in IPv4 blocks.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe