Wednesday, September 15, 2021

Leading vendors agree to tackle vulnerabilities in global routing

The Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing Security (MANRS) initiative, backed by Arista, Cisco, Huawei, Juniper, and Nokia and supported by the Internet Society, today announced an Equipment Vendor Program aimed at reducing the most common threats to the Internet’s routing system.

The MANRS Equipment Vendor Program provides best practices for all network equipment vendors. By joining MANRS, equipment vendors agree to the baseline of routing security defined by a set of two actions and a commitment:

  • Equipment vendors agree to provide security features network operators can use to implement MANRS recommendations such as preventing incorrect routing information and IP address spoofing.
  • Participants agree to promote MANRS through training and technical content.
  • They also agree to actively participate in the MANRS community to advise members, develop solutions, and contribute to routing security resources.

“Having five of the leading network equipment vendors in the world working together with the MANRS community to launch the new Equipment Vendor Program demonstrates the importance of routing security in making the Internet safe for business and consumers alike,” said Andrei Robachevsky, Senior Director, Technology Programs for the Internet Society. “These founding participants are leading by example to improve routing security and hopefully will motivate the entire Internet infrastructure community to make the Internet more secure for everyone.”

“With a greater reliance on the Internet now more than ever, it’s crucial that the Internet is stable and offers secure and trusted methods to connect users. It is the responsibility of the global community to work together to ensure that the ecosystem forming the Internet works well and is protected against threat actors. Juniper Networks is a proud supporter of the MANRS program and will continue to strive for a better internet in today’s connected world,” says Melchior Aelmans, Consulting Engineer, Juniper Networks.