The Internet Infrastructure Coalition (i2Coalition), an organization known for uniting the unsung heroes that support the backbone of the internet, is circling in on its advocacy for one specific part of the industry it thinks needs a little more TLC: the hosting industry.
Earlier this month, i2Coalition debuted its Secure Hosting Alliance (SHA), an initiative that is on the hunt to create a more “ethical” web hosting industry. David Snead, director of the newly formed alliance and co-founder of i2Coalition, told IT Brew that the impetus for the formation of the group came after the coalition observed a direct need to address abuse and trust issues specific to the hosting industry.
“The hosting industry is a bit different than a lot of other internet infrastructure participants because there are so many different players and the range of participants is so great that…it’s kind of a good opportunity to have a group that focuses on particular issues,” Snead said.
On the agenda. The SHA currently comprises 23 founding members, including Cloudflare, DreamHost, and GoDaddy. Together, the members will work to address abuse—which Snead defines as “actionable criminal activity” such as fraud—on their platforms and create proper “mechanisms” for entities to report suspected misconduct.
“It’s a way of distinguishing hosts who are responsible and ethical from hosts who may not have come up to that level,” he said.
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Snead told IT Brew that the alliance, which has been in the works for about a year, is currently in the process of creating a trust seal that organizations would be able to display on their website to signify that it is adhering to high standards of security, privacy, and transparency.
“That would be a symbol that members who meet the standards for the trust seal can put on their website to show that they are engaged in the activities that are set out for a trusted host,” Snead said.
The group will also work to establish more standardized language that can be used by participants in the web hosting industry and advocate for increased data protection and cybersecurity protection for web hosts and cloud providers.
“Having companies who are responsive to abuse complaints, who are responsive to fraud complaints, who are responsive to law enforcement inquiries, is very important for ensuring that the internet remains a safe place for people to go,” Snead said. “In thinking very broadly, we’re trying to create an internet that we can leave to our kids.”