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January 16, 2003
Collaborative Security
I have been thinking about collaborative security the last week or so. This started with a posting on Dave Farber's Interesting People mailing list, about the National Cybersecurity Strategy encouraging the creation of an Cyberspace NOC by Internet operators:
ISPs, hardware and software vendors, IT security-related companies,
computer emergency response teams, and the ISACs,
together, should consider establishing a Cyberspace Network
Operations Center (Cyberspace NOC), physical or virtual, to share
information and ensure coordination to support the health and
reliability of Internet operations in the United States. Although it
would not be a government entity and would be managed by
the private sector, the Federal government should explore ways
in which it could cooperate with the Cyberspace NOC. (p. 13)
I participated in discussion on the NANOG mailing list about this topic, trying to find out if there was anything going on in this area. There are a number of failed efforts, and a few on-going basic efforts, but there seem to be some pretty substantial hurdles preventing any substantive collaboration between network operators.
While I've been at the Westnet conference, I've had a chance to discuss this topic with a number of people here. Today I was invited to give a spontaneous presentation and group discussion on the topic. These conversations have confirmed my initial findings, and also the interest in doing something about the problem.
I think there is an opportunity for education/research networks to explore this issue and demonstrate how collaborative security works. I will be putting together a white paper on this topic to circulate to the Westnet group, proposing that we undertake that effort. This could be particularly interesting because all of the Westnet institutions already share a network, and potentially will share a high-performance network soon.
Posted by pete at January 16, 2003 10:47 AM