Security and Stability Advisory Committee

SSAC is the acronym for Security and Stability Advisory Committee and represents the committee which advises ICANN on matters that are beyond of assigning domain names and IP addresses.

Short overview

The Security and Stability Advisory Committee advises the ICANN community and ICANN Board on matters related to security and integrity of the Internet domain names and the allocation of IP addresses.

The advisory part might include matters related to security assurance for operational matters, administrative matters and registrations matters.

SSAC deals with an ongoing threat assessment and risk analysis for Internet allocation services to determine which are main threats and how could these threats influence the stability. Based on these results, the SSAC advises the ICANN community.

SSAC history

During the ICANN meeting from November 2001, the ICANN Board asked the President to assign a President for "security and stability of the Internet's naming and address allocation system" which has the responsibility to create a in-depth analysis of the risks and threats. In May 13 year 2002 the President of the committee for security and stability was converted to the President of the Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC).

There are currently 37 members of SSAC, while Patrik Fältström is the Chair of the Security and Stability Advisory Committee.

How does SSAC work?

In order to fulfill its objective to advise the ICANN, SSAC develops comments, reports and advisories on the issues which may concern the Internet community.

• Reports are substantive documents which contain substantive information and are developed in a few months' time. The reports represent an well-structures and in-depth analysis concerning a specific topic or issue. Includes also recommendations for ICANN.
• Comments are the responses received based on the reports created by ICANN groups or other eligible organizations. These comments are usually the responses supplied to public calls.
• Advisories are documents which not long but contain useful and clear information providing advice for ICANN and the Internet community. The advisories supply recommendations and solutions for problems and ways to reduce risks and threats.

While ICANN deals with the allocation of domain names and IP addresses, SSAC deals with the assessment of risks and threats that might influence the allocation of resources.

Security and Stability Advisory Committee. Advises the ICANN community and Board on matters relating to the security and integrity of the Internet's naming and address allocation systems (ICANN Bylaws).