Overview of Internet Governance in Brazil

For Brazil, internet governance is more of a political issue. Not only does it involve domain names and IP addresses but also data protection, spam and interconnection costs among other things.

Therefore, internet governance in Brazil must be democratic, transparent and multilateral In this article you will learn about the legislation revolving around the Brazilian internet service and the services responsible for its regulation and maintenance.

Legislation Topics and Subsidiaries

One of the main purposes of internet governance is to regulate actions, stating what may or what may not be done. To this end, many laws and regulations were developed towards steering the internet into a more democratic and sustainable environment.

Committee of Internet Steering: CGI.br

CGI.Br was created in May 1995 but it was only in 2003 that it was assigned to perform the interaction and coordination of the internet services initiative in Brazil. Promoting technical quality, innovation and the proliferation of the services that are offered.

In order to secure the development of the internet in Brazil and yet maintain a democratic participative system, institutions like CGI.br were created to allow you to choose representatives through an electoral process. This way, Brazilian society can be more involved in decisions about the internet in Brazil.

In terms of transparency, CGI.br institutes that the decision process should be open to all internet governance topics and must be done responsibly. While in terms of multilateral decisions, the organization institutes that all nations must be represented equally.

CGI.br also establishes strategic directives responsible for the use and development of the internet in Brazil, implementation of domain name registration, allocation of IP addresses and relevant administration to the first domain level "br". It also promotes studies and procedures for internet security and research and development programs for improved quality and innovation.

Responsabilities

Among numerous duties, CGI.br is also responsibile for:

• Proposing policies and procedures related to the regulation of internet activities
• Establishing standards for technical operational procedures
• Establishing strategic guidelines about the use and development of the internet
• Promoting studies and technical standards for the security of networks and services
• Coordinating the assignment of IPs and the registration of domain names using <.br>
• Collecting, organizing and disseminating information about internet services

Members of CGI.br

The current composition of CGI.br was established in September 2003 by the The Brazilian Federal Governance. CGI.br consists of 9 representatives from the government, 4 from the business sector, 4 from non-profit organizations, 3 from the scientific and technological community and one representative that is an expert in the internet field.

CGI.br’s Advisory Board of Assistance

CGI.br has a Board of Assistance that is part of the Information Center and NIC.br. The Board of Assistance is responsible for providing all the necessary support to carry out CGI.br activities and help its advisors about internet services in the country, whilst NIC.br are responsible for implementing new policies, guidelines, strategies and business plans of CGI.br.

The responsbilities of the CGI.br Advisory Board are:

• Providing technical, logistical and administrative support to directors
• Methodological and administrative support at CGI.br’s meetings
• Representing CGI.br, under specific delegations
• Providing technical and administrative support to the allocation of resources from CGI.br in project support, research, publications and events
• Coordinating institutional communication actions and promoting transparency of CGI.br
• Advising strategy action plans and operational activities of CGI.br
• Coordinating representative offices and perform activities with international organizations which the CGI.br maintains relations with
• Supervising events promoted by CGI.br
• Accounting for the activities of the Secretariat to CGI.br and its coordinator
• Performing other technical, representative, logistic and administrative assistance, coordinating, arranging and monitoring CGI.br activities

Centre of Information and Coordination: NIC.br

NIC.br was created to implement the decisions and projects made by CGI.br. It is considered as CGI.br’s executive power. Here are their responsibilities:

• Registration and maintenance of domain names using <.br >, distribution of Autonomous System Numbers, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, through Registro.br
• Treatment and response to security incidents involving computer networks connected to the internet in Brazil
• Implementing projects that support or improve the network infrastructure in the country
• Production and dissemination of indicators, statistics and strategic information on the development of the internet
• Providing technical and operational support to LACNIC providing internet address registry for Latin America and the Caribbean
• Hosting the Brazilian office of W3C, who develops the Web standards

The Composition of NIC.br

NIC.br is currently made ​​up of four centers, five consultants and also houses the Brazilian W3C office. The agencies responsible for the administration of NIC.br are the:

• General Assembly
• Administrative Council
• Supervisory Board
• Executive Board

Due to its constitution, NIC.br can not be dissociated from CGI.br.

Centre of Studies of Information and Communication Technologies: CETIC.br

CETIC.br is a department of NIC.br which implements the decisions and projects of CGI.br. Through CETIC.br, NIC.br and CGI.br perform the tasks of promoting research that contributes to the development of the internet in Brazil.

CETIC.br has the objective of developing indicators and conducting research related to access and use of information and communication technologies in Brazil. The research process is structured by a collective participation, with more than 200 experts who work voluntarily with the methodological definition and analyse the research results.

Based on a number of international multilateral organizations such as ITU, UNCTAD, OCDE, UNESCO, EUROSTAT and CEPAL research methodologies adopt methodological guidelines and parameters to ensure international compatibility of the data produced.

The regular publication of the results became essential to evaluate the socioeconomic impact of communication technologies. Making it easier to elaborate and guide public policies, as well as academic research.

REGISTRO.br

Since 1995, Registro.br takes care of the registration of domain names, the administration and publication of Domain Name System, DNS, for the ".br" domain, along with distributing and maintaining the internet addresses services.

In order to accomplish this, Registro.br have a team of highly qualified professional that analyse and develop new tools to improve the domain registration system for the technological lead. DNSSEC, for example, is a project of international standards that extends the DNS technology. It adds a more secure name resolution system, reducing the risk of manipulation of data and information.

Response Security Incident Group: CERT.br

CERT.br is maintained by NIC.br and it is responsible for handling security incidents involving computer networks connected to the Brazilian internet.

It acts as the main point of contact for security incidents in Brazil, providing instructions and support during the incident response process and, where necessary, putting the parties involved in contact with each other.

CERT.br also raise awareness on security issues, analysis of trends and correlation between events about the Brazilian internet and the establishment of new Computer Security Incident Response Teams, CSIRT.

CERT.br have three types of main activitites. Each of them have specific duties listed below.

• Incident Handling: Give support in the recovery process and analyse the compromised system. Establish collaborative working procedures with other entities, companies, universities, service providers and internet backbone services. Finally, maintain public statistics of incidents and spam complaints

• Training and Awareness: Provide training for security incidents for CSIRT members and other institutions who are creating their own group. Develop supporting documentation for administrators of internet networks and users. Hold meetings with different subsidiaries of the internet, in order to coordinate the cooperation and implementation of security practices

• Threats Trend Analysis: Increasing the capability of detecting incidents by maintaining a network of honeypots or hacker traps, distributed across several networks in the country. Through low interaction honeypots, get data on the abuse of connected networks infrastructure for sending spam on the internet.

Center of Studies and Research in Network Technology and Operations: CEPTRO.br

CEPTRO.br is the area of NIC.br responsible for the development of services and projects mainly related to internet infrastructure in Brazil. The team develops solutions for network infrastructure, software, hardware and manages projects with external partners.

CEPTRO.br most important service is the Internet Exchange Points from PTTMetro. It helps to organize the internet infrastructure in the country, making it more resilient and saving costs. The team also measures internet quality, dissemination of IPv6 in the country, etc. The services and projects are financed with the registration of the “br” domains.

Internet Exchange Points: PPT

PTTMetro is the name given to the CGI.br service that promotes and creates the necessary infrastructure of PTT for direct interconnection between networks that make up Brazils internet network. The performance of PTTMetro is directed at the metropolitan areas in the country where there is greater internet traffic.

One of the main advantages of this model is lower expenses since the load balance is solved directly and not through third-party networks. Another advantage is the more control that a network has regarding the delivery of your traffic to their destination, generally results in better performance to customers and more efficient internet as a whole.

World Wide Web Consortium: W3C

Following the resolutions of the CGI.br, NIC.br installed a W3C office in Brazil, the first in South America. W3C is an international consortium with a mission to lead the web to its maximum potential by creating standards and guidelines to ensure its continued evolution. Over 80 standards have been published, including HTML, XML, XHTML and CSS. The W3C in Brazil reinforces the overall aim of a web for everyone, on any device, based on knowledge, safety and responsibility.

The W3C in Brazil promotes lectures in universities, government agencies and in the private sector. It translates into Portuguese the main documents produced by the international W3C and maintains an open forum for discussions on the use of web standards and the promotion of initiatives such as mobile web, semantic web, e-government, accessibility and others.