Editing Internet Standard (section)

== The future of Internet Standards ==
{{original research |date=May 2022}}
The Internet has been viewed as an open playground, free for people to use and communities to monitor. However, large companies have shaped and molded it to best fit their needs. The future of internet standards will be no different. Currently, there are widely used but insecure protocols such as the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and Domain Name System (DNS).<ref name=":3">{{Cite report |last=Sherman|first=Justin|date=1 October 2020|chapter=Mapping Private Sector Influence on the Internet: Starting with Internet Protocols |title=The Politics of Internet Security: Private Industry and the Future of the Web |publisher=Atlantic Council|jstor=resrep26661.5 |jstor-access=free |pages=4–7}}</ref>  This reflects common practices that focus more on innovation than security.  Companies have the power to improve these issues.  With the Internet in the hands of the industry, users must depend on businesses to protect vulnerabilities present in these standards.<ref name=":3" />

Ways to make BGP and DNS safer already exist but they are not widespread. For example, there is the existing BGP safeguard called Routing Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI). It is a database of routes that are known to be safe and have been cryptographically signed.<ref name=":4">{{Cite magazine|last=Newman|first=Lily Hay|title=A Broken Piece of Internet Backbone Might Finally Get Fixed|language=en-US|magazine=Wired|url=https://www.wired.com/story/bgp-routing-manrs-google-fix/|access-date=2021-12-08|issn=1059-1028}}</ref> Users and companies submit routes and check other users' routes for safety. If it were more widely adopted, more routes could be added and confirmed. However, RPKI is picking up momentum. As of December 2020, tech giant Google registered 99% of its routes with RPKI.<ref name=":4" /> They are making it easier for businesses to adopt BGP safeguards. DNS also has a security protocol with a low adoption rate: DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC). Essentially, at every stage of the DNS lookup process, DNSSEC adds a signature to data to show it has not been tampered with.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2014-10-07|title=DNSSEC: An Introduction|url=http://blog.cloudflare.com/dnssec-an-introduction/|access-date=2021-12-08|website=The Cloudflare Blog|language=en|archive-date=2021-12-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211206075308/https://blog.cloudflare.com/dnssec-an-introduction/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Some companies have taken the initiative to secure internet protocols. It is up to the rest to make it more widespread.