CRS Reports – Week of 5-18-24 – Botnet Takedowns

This week the Congressional Research Service (CRS) published a report on “Disrupting Botnets: An Overview of Seizure Warrants and Other Legal Tools”. The introduction notes that “this Legal Sidebar provides an overview of several legal authorities relevant to combatting botnets, focusing primarily on search and seizure warrants under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and also discussing legal authorities governing stored communications, pen-trap devices, and injunctive relief against fraud.”

It also discusses a number of other legal tools that can be used to disrupt botnets, including:

• Asset forfeiture,

• Injunctive relief,

• Stored Communications Act,

• Pen-trap devices, and

• Private actions.

The second paragraph of the report starts by reminding readers of the purpose of the CRS, by noting that:

“Botnets may be of interest to Congress in light of the dangers they pose, and Congress may have several options at its disposal to remediate them.”

The report concludes by discussing the actions that Congress could take to “modify or supplant one or more of the legal authorities currently employed by federal law enforcement to disrupt botnets.” It then goes on to discuss two bills introduced in the last congress:

S 2139 – the International Cyber­crime Prevention Act and

S 1245 – the Combating Chinese Purloining of Trade Secrets Act

No action was taken on either bill.

NTIA Attempting to Address Botnet Issues

Today the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) published a request for public comment (RFC) in the Federal Register (82 FR 27042-27044) requesting comments on actions that can be taken to address automated and distributed threats to the digital ecosystem. This request is part of the activity directed by the President in Executive Order 13800 (EO 13800).

NTIA is looking for comments on attack mitigation and endpoint prevention strategies to address distributed denial of services (DDOS) attacks that use botnets. NTIA is looking for specific comments on the topics below and any additional insights that might be available. The specific topics include:

• What works;

• Gaps in existing approaches;

• Potential methods of addressing the problem;

• Governance and collaboration strategies;

• Role of the Federal government;

• International nature of the problem; and

• User prevention activities.

NTIA is soliciting public comments. Comments may be sent by email (counter_botnet_RFC@ntia.doc.gov). Comments should be submitted by July 13^th, 2017.