The Trump administration has made substantial progress in improving the resilience of the Internet ecosystem and reducing the threat of botnets. In a report released today [1], the Departments of Commerce and Homeland Security documented more than 50 activities led by industry and government that demonstrate progress in the drive to counter botnet threats. Building upon work started two years ago with the Botnet Report [2] and Road Map [3], industry and government are working hard to put a stop to these dangerous attacks.

Here are a few of the milestone achievements:

• The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published guidance for IoT device manufacturers [4], which defines a core baseline of cybersecurity capabilities that manufacturers can voluntarily adopt for IoT devices they produce.
• The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) published its first set of community-drafted documents to offer guidance around the practice of a software bill of materials.
• The Department of Homeland Security hosted the first annual President’s Cup Cybersecurity Competition—an interagency effort to identify, challenge and reward the government’s best personnel supporting cybersecurity and cyber excellence.
• The Council to Secure the Digital Economy, representing the information and communications technology industry, published an international anti-botnet guide and expert guidance to industry and government on security new IoT devices.
• The Global Cyber Alliance published cybersecurity toolkits for small businesses and election security, and continued adding to its suite of free cybersecurity tools.  

Stopping botnet threats is an ecosystem-wide challenge that will take significant cooperation over time to accomplish. The Botnet Report and Road Map emphasized that the U.S. government cannot and should not attack the botnet problem alone. Today’s report demonstrates the commitment across government and industry to continue to build increased security and resilience to protect U.S. networks.