Mind the governance gap! Broadening the multistakeholder response to DNS-related cybersecurity threats – Pre 03 2023
by Dynamic Coalition on DNS Issues
19 June 2023 | 10:00 - 11:30 EEST | Auditorium A4 | 
Consolidated programme 2023 overview / Pre 3
What are the existing governance gaps in responding to DNS-related cybersecurity threats? What challenges might emerge from non-DNS namespaces, such as naming systems that use the blockchain? How can we foster improved multistakeholder responses across Europe? Join Internet organisations, industry, civil society and academia in discussing opportunities for cooperation in the DNS sector and their connection to today's most pressing cybersecurity challenges.
Session description
In recent years, there has been an energetic response to defining and combating ‘DNS Abuse.’ Segments of the DNS industry have implemented voluntary responses, and EU Regulators have brought in new legislative obligations, NIS2, to provide access to registration data.
DNS Abuse has been defined mostly in narrow terms to refer to a specific set of threats relating to the malicious use of domain names. But what about all the other threats that are transmitted using DNS, such as content-related issues and their connection with the DNS? What are the governance gaps in non-DNS namespaces, such as naming systems that use the blockchain?
Governance gaps create multiple fragmentation risks - either through inconsistent, tactical responses, regional or national regulatory responses that create conflicts of law and drive data localisation or impede the free flow of data across borders. Recent years have seen a flourishing of multilateral processes through the UN to tackle issues such as responsible state behaviour in cyberspace, the Ad Hoc Committee on cybercrime, the Second Protocol to the Budapest Convention, the e-Evidence regulation and the OECD principles on cross-border data sharing. Meanwhile, there has been a stalling of new multistakeholder processes to tackle emerging policy issues that require international coordination.
The Dynamic Coalition on DNS Issues presents a roundtable discussion to explore these complex issues, and foster European multistakeholder responses.
Format
Roundtable discussion.
Further reading
Links to relevant websites, declarations, books, documents. Please note we cannot offer web space, so only links to external resources are possible. Example for an external link: Main page of EuroDIG
People
Key participants:
- Keith Drazek from Verisign will be the session moderator.
- Polina Malaja from CENTR will provide an overview of how European ccTLDs are approaching abuse, particularly from a regulatory angle. She will hone in on the role of NIS2, including aspects related to compliance, best practices and extraterritoriality effects.
- Thomas Rickert from ECO will discuss the recent Quad 9/Sony case, governance gaps in relation to content issues and the risks for fragmentation if distinctions between content related issues and DNS resolution are blurred.
- Mark Hughes from DxC will speak from the perspective of hosting and proxy providers. He will consider the governance gaps surrounding content-related issues and speak to the roles and the potential overlaps between domain registrars and hosting providers.
- Bruna Santos, digital rights activist and German Chancellor Fellow at the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation will speak about freedom of expression implications of takedowns at DNS level, and challenges with governance gaps.
- Georgia Osborn of the DNS Research Federation will outline the growth of an emerging governance gap: the so-called blockchain domains. She will look at the implications for fragmentation if the governance gaps are not addressed by the multistakeholder community.