Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Network Security

Free MANRS Tool Helps Improve Routing Security

The Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing Security (MANRS) initiative on Tuesday announced the availability of a free tool designed to help network operators identify potential issues and improve routing security.

The Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing Security (MANRS) initiative on Tuesday announced the availability of a free tool designed to help network operators identify potential issues and improve routing security.

MANRS, a community-driven project supported by the Internet Society, aims to improve internet security and safety for consumers and businesses by requiring members to implement measures meant to enhance the security and resiliency of the routing infrastructure. This includes filtering to prevent propagation of incorrect routing information, anti-spoofing measures to block traffic with spoofed source IPs, coordination and communication between network operators, and global validation for routing information.

Routing-related incidents can have serious consequences. The Internet Society last year reported seeing over 12,000 outages and attacks — this includes spoofing, hijacking and leaks — that resulted in stolen data, revenue loss, and damage to reputation. One of these incidents, caused by a Nigerian ISP, resulted in global Google traffic being routed through Russia, China and Nigeria.

The new online tool released on Tuesday, named MANRS Observatory, helps network operators determine their MANRS compliance level. The tool passively collects data on routing incidents from a number of sources and displays them in a dashboard in an effort to help operators identify problematic areas. The tool allows users to filter incidents based on date, region, country, ASN and pre-defined groups.

MANRS Observatory

“One of the advantages of the MANRS Observatory is that it adds an element of accountability,” said Andrei Robachevsky, Senior Technology Program Manager at the Internet Society. “MANRS is seeing steady adoption, but we need more networks to implement the actions and more customers to demand routing security best practices. The more network operators applying MANRS actions, the fewer incidents happening, the less damage done. Our hope is that the MANRS Observatory will help drive greater participation.”

MANRS currently has over 230 members, including 201 internet service providers (ISPs) and 34 internet exchange points (IXPs). The list includes regional ISPs, Tier-1 carrier networks, universities, cloud providers, and tech giants such as Microsoft and Google.

The MANRS Observatory tool can be used for free by anyone but MANRS members have some advantages.

“Anyone can use the MANRS Observatory, but MANRS participants will have a more in-depth picture as well as reports and other benefits. For full access to the MANRS Observatory, ISPs and IXPs should commit to improving Internet security and join the MANRS initiative. They can do so here,” Robachevsky told SecurityWeek.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Related: Internet Society Calls on IXPs to Help Solve Internet Routing Problems

Related: BGP Flaws Patched in Quagga Routing Software

Written By

Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a managing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.

Click to comment

Trending

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Join the session as we discuss the challenges and best practices for cybersecurity leaders managing cloud identities.

Register

SecurityWeek’s Ransomware Resilience and Recovery Summit helps businesses to plan, prepare, and recover from a ransomware incident.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Identity & Access

Zero trust is not a replacement for identity and access management (IAM), but is the extension of IAM principles from people to everyone and...

Malware & Threats

The NSA and FBI warn that a Chinese state-sponsored APT called BlackTech is hacking into network edge devices and using firmware implants to silently...

Cybersecurity Funding

Network security provider Corsa Security last week announced that it has raised $10 million from Roadmap Capital. To date, the company has raised $50...

Network Security

Attack surface management is nothing short of a complete methodology for providing effective cybersecurity. It doesn’t seek to protect everything, but concentrates on areas...

Application Security

Virtualization technology giant VMware on Tuesday shipped urgent updates to fix a trio of security problems in multiple software products, including a virtual machine...

Identity & Access

Hackers rarely hack in anymore. They log in using stolen, weak, default, or otherwise compromised credentials. That’s why it’s so critical to break the...

Application Security

Fortinet on Monday issued an emergency patch to cover a severe vulnerability in its FortiOS SSL-VPN product, warning that hackers have already exploited the...

Cyberwarfare

Websites of German airports, administration bodies and banks were hit by DDoS attacks attributed to Russian hacker group Killnet