How industry can help us fight against botnets: Notes on regulating private-sector intervention

Could industry improve our response to botnet attacks? If so, how should this private sector participation be regulated? This paper examines how regulation could be used to facilitate private sector intervention against robot networks, also known as botnets. The first part of this paper is dedicated to exploring botnets and the potential role industry could play to mitigate them. The second part exposes the regulatory challenges that must be met by regulators attempting to further industry participation in this arena. The third part outlines starting points for regulating this select private sector intervention. It builds upon the pioneering efforts launched in the Netherlands, United States, Germany, and Finland, and presents a compass for guiding regulatory choice. Stemming from these considerations, a hard law and two soft law mechanisms are presented as a commencement for regulating this intervention. This paper does not concentrate on a particular jurisdiction, but adopts a more international approach that could support regulatory efforts in various parts of the world, given the omnipresent discussion on how to counter botnets.