The world must unite to fight malware, says OECD

By Stuart Corner
Monday, 02 June 2008 16:59

Government Tech Policy

The OECD has called for the setting up of a global partnership to combat malware and for  Internet service providers and domain name registrars to develop common codes of national and international practice.

"A strategy for a global partnership against malware is needed to avoid it becoming a serious threat to the Internet economy and to national security in the coming years," the OECD says. "Today, communities involved in fighting malware offer essentially a fragmented local response to a global threat...Current response and mitigation are mainly reactive. There is a need for more structured and strategic co-ordination at national and international levels with involvement of all actors to more adequately assess and mitigate the risk of malware."

The recommendations are contained in a new OECD report on Malware . It also calls on governments to foster the development of more secure software products; for governments and the private sector to increase research and prevention activity and for more OECD countries to sign and ratify the Council of Europe’s Convention on cybercrime to drive international harmonisation of cybercrime laws. Twenty five of the 30 OECD member countries have signed the declaration, but only eight have actually ratified it.

The report is addressed primarily to policymakers, but it's a very readable and comprehensive guide to the whole malware issue for anyone interested: and it's free!

It was developed by the OECD Working Party on Information Security and Privacy (WPISP) in partnership with the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation Telecommunication and Information Working Group (APEC TEL) Security and Prosperity Steering Group (SPSG).

Malware and cyberfraud are among the issues to be discussed at  the OECD Ministerial meeting on the Future of the Internet Economy in Seoul on 17-18 June 2008.