The National Institute of Standards and Technology has worked with the Department of Homeland Security and the internet industry to develop standards for the protection of electronic messages from data theft.
The Internet Engineering Task Force published the Secure Inter-Domain Routing framework in an effort to establish a uniform approach for protecting the internet’s routing system, NIST said Tuesday.
SIDR also offers a defense mechanism for the Border Gateway Protocol system that works to help routers determine the path of data as it travels across the internet.
“BGP as currently deployed has no built-in security mechanisms, so it is common to see examples of ‘route hijacks’ and ‘path detours’ by malicious parties meant to capture, eavesdrop upon or deny legitimate internet data exchanges,” said Doug Montgomery, an NIST computer scientist.
The project aimed to apply cryptographic measures to ensure that data would only move along authorized networks.
Montgomery’s team provided modeling and analysis support to help create SIDR as well as test and measurement tools to aid its commercial deployment.
NIST’s National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence plans to launch an SIDR-focused program to support the industry adoption of the security guide.