Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science

Which organization oversees Internet protocols?

1. ICANN

2. FBI

3. IETF

4. WHOIS

The correct answer is: IETF

The organization that oversees Internet protocols is the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The IETF is responsible for developing and promoting voluntary Internet standards, particularly those related to the TCP/IP protocols that underpin the Internet. It is made up of a large number of working groups focused on specific topics or technologies, and its primary goal is to ensure that the protocols are open, robust, and operate effectively across the diverse range of Internet connected systems. ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) primarily manages domain name systems and IP address allocation, but it does not directly oversee Internet protocols. The FBI is a law enforcement agency focused on criminal justice and national security, and WHOIS is a query and response protocol used for querying databases that store registered users of a domain name. While important components of the broader Internet ecosystem, ICANN, the FBI, and WHOIS do not primarily manage Internet protocols in the same way the IETF does.