2.3 National Internet Infrastructure Security Principles When developing national strategies for Internet infrastructure security, African policymakers should use four essential principles as a guide. These essential principles8 are awareness, responsibility, cooperation, and fundamental rights and Internet properties. a. Awareness: An understanding of security risks, along with how they can impact others in the Internet infrastructure ecosystem. A preparedness to recognize the risk and manage it, and evaluate the impact of actions on oneself and others in the African Internet infrastructure ecosystem. b. Responsibility: Taking responsibility for the management of security risks. Due to the fundamental nature of the Internet, one should take into account the potential impacts of one’s actions, or inactions, on other stakeholders before taking action. c. Cooperation: Engage in an ongoing cyber security dialogue that includes actors across borders to effectively counter new and persisting threats. The security of critical Internet infrastructure cannot be achieved alone. There is a need for cooperation and collective responsibility among all stakeholders, not just the government and a selected number of stakeholders. d. Fundamental Rights and Internet Properties: Actions to manage security risks must adhere to fundamental rights, be transparent, and not infringe upon the fundamental properties of the Internet: voluntary collaboration, open standards, reusable technological building blocks, integrity, permission-free innovation, and global reach.9 An effective approach to Internet infrastructure security must not only employ these principles, but empower all other stakeholders to use them. The approach should support conditions for collaborative security10 and an ongoing security dialogue, encourage transparency, and empower others to safeguard the fundamental properties of the Internet. The approach should improve access and contribute to a more open Internet ecosystem, free of censorship and respectful of privacy. 8 9 10 See Annex II for basic security principles. For more information on the fundamental properties of the internet, see the ISOC publication Internet Invariants: What Really Matters https://www.internetsociety.org/internet-invariants-what-really-matters For more information on collaborative security, see the ISOC publication Collaborative Security: An Approach to Tackling Internet Security Issues http://www.internetsociety.org/collaborativesecurity internetsociety.org Internet Infrastructure Security Guidelines for Africa 13