The US Departments of Commerce and Homeland Security have published a report focused on the challenges and steps toward fighting botnets and other automated, distributed threats, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced last week.

Their report is a response to Executive Order 13800, Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure. The EO directed the Secretaries of Commerce and Homeland Security to "lead an open and transparent process to identify and promote action by the appropriate stakeholders" in order to reduce automated and distributed cyberattacks.

In a joint effort, the two departments drafted the opportunities and challenges in reducing the threat of automated attacks. Key themes of their report include acknowledging automated attacks are a global problem, effective tools exist but are not widely used, education and awareness is needed, and market incentives are misaligned.

They also created a list of goals to reduce the threat. These include identifying a clear path toward a secure tech marketplace, promoting infrastructure innovation to adapt to evolving threats, and promoting network innovation to prevent and detect threats.

A final report will be submitted by May 11. Read more details here.