Experts: How to impose internet sanctions on Russia

BOSTON (AP) — Ukraine’s attempt to get Russia kicked off the internet failed, but a diverse group of experts proposes a more narrow approach to sanctioning the Kremlin for invading its neighbor: Consider creating a mechanism that could technically blacklist individual Russian military and propaganda websites.

In an open letter released Thursday, the activists say it's time the internet community developed a way to confront humanitarian crises. The idea they float would mean gathering and publishing a list of sanctioned IP addresses and domain names in the form of data feeds that telecommunications providers and other network operators could subscribe to with the goal of rendering the targets unreachable.

No new technology would be required and putting the system to work would require minimal effort because it would mirror existing ones already in use by network operators, said Bill Woodcock, executive director of Packet Clearing House, a global nonprofit that promotes internet development.

“The implementation is very straightforward because it’s exactly the same as we use for spam and malware and phishing and DDoS and so forth,” added Woodcock, who organized the effort with Bart Groothuis, a Dutch member of the European Parliament.

The nearly 40 signatories include security researchers, online civil libertarians, former White House officials, The Internet Archive and current and former officials of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, the nonprofit that manages the internet's naming system and address inventory.

They agree with ICANN’s leadership that disconnecting a country’s population from the internet is “disproportionate and inappropriate” because it “hampers their access to the very information that might lead them to withdraw...