02.05.2024

Europe’s largest Association of the Internet Industry, eco, Joins Forces with GCA for a Secure Global Internet

Joining forces for Domain Trust and the protection of the Domain Name System (DNS): eco – Association of the Internet Industry and the Global Cyber Alliance inaugurate wide-ranging cooperation.

The eco Association and the Global Cyber Alliance (GCA) are joining forces to promote a secure and trustworthy Internet by signing a partnership agreement.

Under this agreement, the eco Association’s topDNS Initiative will become an active member of the GCA’s Domain Trust Community and will support GCA’s overall mission to develop tools, services, and programmes that enhance cybersecurity on a global level. In turn, GCA will support the topDNS Initiative and its members in combating DNS abuse. Dan Owen, GCA’s Project Manager for Domain Trust, will also join the topDNS Initiative as a member of its Advisory Group.

“The Global Cyber Alliance is extremely pleased to now be fully partnered with the eco Association in the collective fight against various types of cybercrimes. As Europe’s largest Internet Industry Association, eco and its vast number of partners exponentially increase the value and impact of our growing Domain Trust Community’s collaborative and expanding efforts to mitigate and prevent cybercrime caused by domain abuse,” said Dan Owen.

The collaboration between GCA and eco will initially focus on information sharing, by means of the Domain Trust platform, and on collective action, by means of the Domain Trust Community and its two active working groups. The joint development of resources and awareness-raising actions on domain abuse for the Internet Industry is one of the topics included in the future agenda of discussions of both initiatives.

Thanks to this collaboration, registries and registrars, ISPs and other organisations will improve their respective abilities to exchange information to curb phishing, malware distribution and command-and-control attacks, among other threats.

Collaboration for a secure global Internet

“The eco Association and, in particular, the topDNS Initiative have gained a strong partner with GCA in the fight against domain abuse,” says Thomas Rickert, Director Names & Numbers and Head of the topDNS Initiative at the eco Association. “This gives topDNS more opportunities to advocate for the stable and secure operation of the DNS, which is the foundation for the worldwide dissemination of the Internet as a public resource. We are also pleased to welcome Dan Owen as a member of the topDNS Advisory Group.”

The eco Association and GCA look forward to collaborating on various events in the near future: for example, in workshops at the M3AAWG in Vienna in June. GCA and the eco Association will also be taking part together in the “State of the DNS” follow-up workshop with the EU Commission.

About eco

With approximately 1,000 member companies, eco (https://international.eco.de) is the leading Association of the Internet Industry in Europe. Since 1995, eco has been highly instrumental in shaping the Internet, fostering new technologies, forming framework conditions, and representing the interests of its members in politics and international forums. eco has offices based in Cologne, Berlin and Brussels. In its work, eco primarily advocates for a high-performance, reliable and trustworthy ecosystem of digital infrastructures and services.

About the Global Cyber Alliance (GCA)
The Global Cyber Alliance (GCA) is an international nonprofit organisation dedicated to making the Internet a safer place by reducing cyber risk. We build programmes, tools and partnerships to sustain a trustworthy Internet to enable social and economic progress for all. GCA is a registered 501(c)(3) in the U.S. and a nonprofit in the U.K. and Belgium.

Europe’s largest Association of the Internet Industry, eco, Joins Forces with GCA for a Secure Global Internet