The Council to Secure the Digital Economy (CSDE), a partnership between global technology, communications, and internet companies supported by USTelecom—The Broadband Association and the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), has released the International Botnet and IoT Security Guide 2020, put forth as "a comprehensive set of strategies to protect the global digital ecosystem from the growing threat posed by botnets, malware and distributed attacks."
As defined by CSDE, botnets are large networks of compromised devices under the control of malicious actors whose goals can range from criminal activity to cyberattacks against nation states. In the International Anti-Botnet Guide 2020, members of the CSDE council analyzed how the botnet threat has evolved in the past 12 months and found that botnets are adapting with new strategies, more focus on enterprise Internet of Things (IoT), and increasing fraud and social media abuse.
These developments inflict direct, tangible costs on the digital economy. According to the partnership, since 2017, malware has spread across Europe, Asia and the Americas, causing more than $10 billion in damage. Cyber crimes are estimated to cost $8 trillion (in fines, loss of business and remediation costs) over the next five years.
The CSDE guide includes strategies to increase the resilience of the internet and communications ecosystem and enhance the integrity of the underlying digital infrastructure. It urges implementation of baseline security tools, practices and processes.
Jonathan Spalter, President and CEO, USTelecom, said: “We have entered a world where virtually every aspect of our lives will rely on applications that reside on billions of connected devices and share real time data over an endless variety of networks and systems. The flip side of this unprecedented connectivity is the looming cyber threat to individuals and our digital economy that is growing more frequent, more sophisticated and more dangerous. The good news: there are strategies to fight back against botnets and cyber criminals. This is why we formed CSDE: to harness the collective expertise of government and technology innovators globally to stay ahead of the bad guys.”
Brian Markwalter, senior vice president, research and standards, CTA, added: “The innovations enabled by today’s anytime/anywhere connectivity are improving lives across the world. But as our digital economy and infrastructure grow, we must be better prepared to fight cyber attacks. This report demonstrates our effort to unite industries, governments and organizations across the digital ecosystem to stay ahead of evolving botnet threats. Consumers have to be able to trust the security of the IoT and the tech devices that connect them to the world.”
Since the release of the CSDE International Anti-Botnet Guide 2018, industry has been proactive in developing new tools and security strategies. Earlier this year, CSDE’s C2 Consensus on IoT Security Baseline Capabilities brought together technical experts from 19 leading organizations across the information and communications technology (ICT) sector to develop and advance industry consensus on baseline security capabilities for new devices. Retailers and manufacturers are working together on follow-on efforts to secure the retail supply chain.
CSDE’s International Botnet and IoT Security Guide 2020 is available here.
CSDE brings together leading global enterprises from across the information technology, communications, and cybersecurity sectors. Its founding partners include Akamai, AT&T, CenturyLink, Cisco, Ericsson, IBM, Intel, NTT, Oracle, Samsung, SAP, Telefónica and Verizon. The CSDE’s Secretariat includes USTelecom and CTA. For more information visit: www.securingdigitaleconomy.org.
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