APNIC contends that the majority of network relationships, based on a system of mutual trust, are not secure. They can be susceptible to a variety of attacks such as injection of false information into the routing system.

These networks can also be affected by non-malicious events such as routing leaks. The global disruption of YouTube in February this year would have been averted if there was a secure route between trusted Internet resources, according to APNIC.

The system is based on digital (X.509) certificates with an extended format that incorporates Internet resources, such as, IPv4 and IPv6 address blocks and autonomous system (AS) numbers.

Using public key certificates through public key infrastructure (PKI), resource holders encrypt or sign routing instructions with a private key that can only be decrypted or unlocked with the corresponding public key.

"APNIC sees resources certification as an important development to assist the Asia Pacific Internet industry to maintain the integrity of network transactions," said Geoff Huston, chief scientist of APNIC.