Strengthening Internet Security: Civil Society, Funding, and Core Infrastructure

The Role of Civil Society in Internet Security

• 💡 Global Cyber Alliance (GCA) operates as a virtual organization with a global footprint, focusing on delivering cybersecurity solutions at scale as a fundamental human right.
• 🎯 GCA occupies a unique niche between large for-profit tech companies and policy-focused think tanks, emphasizing operational activity to make cybersecurity accessible to everyone.
• 🚀 Unlike traditional nonprofits, GCA focuses on building communities to solve huge problems and deploying solutions at scale where they are not otherwise being addressed, such as operating Quad9 for protective DNS and Manners for routing security.

The Common Good Cyber Initiative

• 🧩 The Common Good Cyber project aims to address the critical funding gap for nonprofits that maintain essential internet functions, ensuring their work is sustained.
• 💰 This initiative seeks to create sustainable funding models for organizations providing solutions for the common good, benefiting high-risk actors, vulnerable groups, and the internet's core infrastructure.
• 🤝 Common Good Cyber fosters collective action among nonprofits to secure enduring solutions, moving beyond mere recommendations to tangible problem-solving.

Challenges in Internet Infrastructure Funding

• ⚠️ Many vital nonprofits maintaining critical internet functions operate with skeleton crews and volunteers on razor-thin budgets, relying on unpredictable donations and grants.
• 📉 Funding for cybersecurity has been declining for years, increasing the vulnerability of these essential organizations and driving the need for initiatives like Common Good Cyber to mitigate uncertainty.
• 🌐 The internet's infrastructure lacks clear ownership and funding models compared to other infrastructures like roads or airlines, making it reliant on community assembly to solve problems, often without dedicated resources.

High-Risk Internet Systems and Data Gaps

• 🔍 Identifying and securing critical internet systems is challenging due to a rudimentary understanding of what needs protection, highlighting the need for initiatives like Common Good Cyber to map these roles and requirements.
• ⚠️ Routing security (Manners) and incident response (FIRST) are identified as critical areas facing significant challenges due to underfunding and reliance on minimal staff.
• 📊 The Common Good Cyber mapping database aims to organize and quantify cybersecurity tools and services deployed in the public interest, categorized by NIST framework functions (Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, Recover).
• 📈 Developing metrics and data to evaluate the effectiveness of these tools is crucial for strategic investment, reducing duplication, and ensuring resources go further.

Policy, Funding, and the Future of Internet Security

• 🔒 The "secure by design" policy approach, akin to improving automobile safety, is a key area for making the internet inherently safer, requiring global strategy and implementation.
• 🤝 Despite global trends moving away from international collaboration, there's an optimistic opportunity to recognize the internet's critical role and foster cooperation to secure its core infrastructure and high-risk actors.
• 🌐 Treating the internet as essential infrastructure that requires sustained support, similar to public health or food safety, is crucial for its long-term functionality and security.