ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a critical assessment of the ‘technical community’ in Internet governance and a nuanced approach that accounts for two specific technical expert communities, the Network Operators and the Incident Response Teams. It argues that both perform key functions in maintaining network operations and cooperating for the security, stability and resilience of the same. The chapter explores practices that guide both communities and the mechanisms they developed to address security threats and shows how the groups have engaged in the development of international cybersecurity cooperation. As cybersecurity risks increase, trust and collaborative relationships between Network Operators are not reducing, but becoming stronger – with more peering agreements, more Network Operator Groups being setup, more interconnections, and more routes being announced in Border Gateway Protocol. The visibility, sophistication, and scale of cyber-attacks have served as a constant reminder of just how vulnerable and exposed the Internet ecosystem has become.
