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Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing Security (MANRS) 24 July 2020

A (Fairly) Non-Technical Guide to Routing Security Basics

By Megan KruseFormer Director, Advocacy and Communications

On the MANRS website, we write about routing security. We dig into the details of technical problems, research the origins of route leaks and hijacks, analyze trends and statistics related to networks around the globe via the MANRS Observatory, and generally get pretty nerdy about how to improve the routing system that underpins the Internet. Last week, we took a step back and published a series of posts regarding Routing Security Basics.

This 5-part series covers the following topics:

While it’s difficult to explain routing security without assuming some baseline knowledge, our intent is for these posts to be as non-technical as possible to help non-experts understand this sometimes-complicated topic.

It all started with a Twitter thread on a Friday afternoon, comparing routing security to online dating. We then expanded this silly analogy into a series of blog posts. Follow along as Juan, Maria, and Bad Guy Chad help us explain the types of routing incidents that happen and how the simple, concrete MANRS actions can help.

We hope you’ll read the Routing Security Basics posts, and if you’re running a network at an ISP, IXP, or CDN/Cloud provider, we hope you’ll consider implementing the MANRS actions and joining the MANRS community.


Image by Alexander Sinn via Unsplash

Disclaimer: Viewpoints expressed in this post are those of the author and may or may not reflect official Internet Society positions.

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