Major Cloud, CDN Providers Join Secure Routing Initiative

A global effort to beef up the security of the Internet's routing infrastructure just gained more firepower with several big-name content delivery network (CDN) and cloud service providers now pledging to help clean up errant or malicious routing information passing through the network.

Akamai, Amazon Web Services, Azion, Cloudflare, Facebook, and Netflix have joined the Internet Society-backed Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing Security (MANRS) initiative that launched six years ago to advance the security and resiliency of the Internet's routing infrastructure. To date, nearly 300 network operators and 48 Internet exchange points are part of the effort, including AT&T, Comcast, CenturyLink, Sky, and VeriSign. Google and Microsoft, which are members as well, now also are working on the CDN-cloud side of the effort.

Network providers with MANRS pledge to perform filtering, anti-spoofing, and validation, and they will coordinate with other providers. CDN members commit to several similar security practices, including preventing propagation of incorrect routing information, preventing traffic from spoofed or illegitimate IP addresses, facilitating routing information validation worldwide as well as MANRS adoption, and providing peering partners with monitoring and debugging tools.

Content delivery networks are a key component of the health of the Internet infrastructure ecosystem, experts say. CDNs pull content and services from the most efficient and close locations for the best response time to end users, exchanging traffic with nearby networks via a process known as peering. Their role in cleaning up routing issues with their peering partners could go a long way toward securing Internet routing.

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