2021 Initiatives

Helping the Internet2 community adopt safer routing practices

Steve Wallace, IU’s enterprise network architect, supports Internet2’s routing security initiative in his role as an ambassador for the Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing Security (MANRS). Network routing is the backbone of the internet we all use every day. Routing protocols direct information between the internet’s web of computers and have become a target for crimes like route hijacking, route leaks, and IP address spoofing—all of which can disable entire networks or divert traffic to unintended parties.

In 2021, Wallace hosted dozens of meetings and webinars to help the Internet2 community adopt and align with MANRS practices. Over the year, Wallace worked with and supported 36 separate Internet2 connectors.

Developing a routing security assessment tool

A new Internet2 project in 2021 was the creation of a security assessment tool to help organizations understand where they are relative to peers in implementing routing security. Doing so allows leaders to gauge their progress and identify steps they can take to improve their adoption of MANRS.