BFH researcher takes part in panel discussion on DNS abuse

Roman Hüssy – a research associate at BFH’s Institute for Cybersecurity and Engineering ICE and founder of the abuse.ch platform – took part in a panel discussion about DNS abuse, which was held in the context of the Annual General Meeting ICANN72. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is responsible for assigning IP addresses and coordinating the domain name system to ensure every addressing element on the internet is only allocated once and can be found by all internet users. These responsibilities make the US-based non-profit organisation the internet’s most senior body. In addition to other cybersecurity experts, ICANN’s CEO was also on the panel with participants fielding questions on DNS abuse.

The definition of DNS abuse took up a major part of the panel discussion that lasted for around two-and-a-half hours. Within ICANN and the bodies that assign addressing elements on the internet, there are differing views and interests. Decision-making is a protracted and complex process. At the same time, however, the danger to internet users through DNS abuse is constantly increasing, and the authorities and associations of states are putting greater pressure on stakeholders, including ICANN, to agree on a definition and take appropriate action.

The participation of a BFH researcher in the panel discussion has enabled BFH to make a major contribution to the secure running of the internet for the future.

The recording of the panel discussion and the audio of interpretation into French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and Russian are available online:

abuse.ch

Around 15 years ago, Roman Hüssy founded the non-profit platform abuse.ch, which is heavily used worldwide to protect against cyber threats. The platform has had a new home at ICE since April 2021 in the form of a research project. Its activities focus on research on botnets and malware.