When it comes to Internet abuse, the Netherlands is number two in the international rankings. Phishing, DDoS attacks, ransomware, as well as child pornography are the criminal activities that are all facilitated from Dutch hosting infrastructure. To protect the good reputation the Netherlands has as a digital mainport, branch organizations DHPA and ISPConnect, in cooperation with many other relevant institutions, have published a code of conduct to handle online abuse and keep Dutch networks and servers clean and safe.
Branch organizations DHPA and ISPConnect are joined by the Association of Registrars (VvR), ECP, government, TU Delft, the Dutch Management Association of Internet Providers (NBIP), SIDN, DINL and many others in publishing this code of conduct for handling online abuse in the Netherlands.
Why the Dutch hosting sector has proceeded to draw up this code of conduct?
“In addition to the notice-and-takedown procedure and other procedures, we noted that there was a need to formulate a more robust approach to handling online abuse,” explains Sven Visser, chairman of DHPA.
“Also companies who think that abuse and exploitable vulnerabilities cannot occur in their infrastructure are to be found in national and international databases. They are often unaware that their customers’ servers and sometimes their own infrastructure are being used for botnets, child pornography or other types of cybercrime. In short, it was time for a new approach.”
Mandatory, Abuse Platform
The code of conduct being introduced provides for a number of guidelines that must be followed in order to comply with it. “We have formulated detailed, mandatory guidelines to really take the fight against online abuse to a higher level,” added Mr. Visser. “A number of steps must be taken, such as the processing of abuser reports and acting on them in the right way. The new code of conduct therefore also imposes the obligation to work with the AbuseIO platform, to give providers the opportunity to process abuser reports easily, quickly and automatically, while able to inform end users and detect and remove online abuse.”
“The ultimate goal of introducing this platform and code of conduct is to get the Netherlands out of the top-10 of countries with online abuse and cybercrime rates,” said Simon Besteman, director of ISPConnect. “To achieve this, according to ISPConnect and DHPA, it is important that all parties concerned will join the abuse platform, then download the code of conduct and place the code of conduct on their website. After that the implementation of recommendations can be started, ultimately leading to a reduction of Internet abuse.”
As a support for the targeted application of the code of conduct, the NBIP has set up the Abuseplatform.nl. Here providers can find information about abuse within their own networks and systems.
Here they can also find extensive information about the code of conduct being introduced.
