SSR2 Review

Background

Under the Bylaws, Section 4.6(c) -

‘The Board shall cause a periodic review of ICANN’s execution of its commitment to enhance the operational stability, reliability, resiliency, security, and global interoperability of the systems and processes, both internal and external, that directly affect and/or are affected by the Internet’s system of unique identifiers that ICANN coordinates (“SSR Review”).’

The issues that the review team for the SSR Review (“SSR Review Team”) may assess are the following:

1. Security, operational stability and resiliency matters, both physical and network, relating to the coordination of the Internet’s system of unique identifiers;
2. Conformance with appropriate security contingency planning framework for the Internet’s system of unique identifiers;
3. Maintaining clear and globally interoperable security processes for those portions of the Internet’s system of unique identifiers that ICANN coordinates.

The SSR Review Team shall also assess:

• The extent to which ICANN has successfully implemented its security efforts.
• The effectiveness of the security efforts to deal with actual and potential challenges and threats to the security and stability of the DNS.
• The extent to which the security efforts are sufficiently robust to meet future challenges and threats to the security, stability and resiliency of the DNS, consistent with ICANN’s Mission.
• The extent to which prior SSR Review recommendations have been implemented.
• The extent to which implementation of such recommendations has resulted in the intended effect.

Frequency:

The SSR Review shall be conducted no less frequently than every five years, measured from the date the previous SSR Review Team was convened (see Bylaws, Section 4.6(c)).

The SSR2 Review Team produced 63 final recommendations for Board consideration and released its Final Report (25 January 2021)

On 22 July 2021, the Board took action on each of the 63 recommendations contained in the SSR2 Final Report, as specified within the scorecard titled “Scorecard: Final SSR2 Review Team Recommendations - Board Action 22 July 2021“:

• 13 Recommendations were accepted by the Board, subject to prioritization, risk assessment and mitigation, costing, and implementation considerations; with the understanding that two recommendations are already fully implemented
• 6 Recommendations were rejected by the Board, because the recommendation cannot be approved in full. The Board notes that part of the community intent in incorporating Specific Reviews into the ICANN Bylaws in 2016 was to require the Board to act on recommendations as written, not as interpreted by ICANN org or Board.
• 10 Recommendations were rejected by the Board. The detailed rationale for each recommendation sets out the specific reasons for the Board's decision.
• 34 Recommendations were placed in pending status. The ICANN Board committed to take further action on these recommendations subsequent to the completion of intermediate steps as identified in the Scorecard: Final SSR2 Review Team Recommendations - Board Action 22 July 2021

• • 4 Recommendations the Board determined to be pending, likely to be approved once further information is gathered to enable approval.
  • 6 Recommendations the Board determined to be pending, likely to be rejected unless additional information shows implementation is feasible. Based on the information available to date, the Board anticipates that each of these recommendations will be rejected.
  • 24 Recommendations the Board determined to be pending, holding to seek clarity or further information. The Board is unable to signal at this time whether it is likely to accept or reject these recommendations pending additional information.

• See https://www.icann.org/resources/reviews/specific-reviews/ssr for more information.