In the past two years, the industry has been proposing new cyber norms to protect cyberspace. The industry is increasingly stepping into a norm-developing role, which was previously mainly the ambit of governments. In this space, you can follow the developments on main proposals: Microsoft's proposed Digital Geneva Convention, Cybersecurity Tech Accord, Charter of Trust for a Secure Digital World, and Google's proposed legal framework for digital security and due process.
Events | Digital Geneva Convention | Cybersecurity Tech Accord | Charter of Trust | Google's proposal | Resources | Explore the issues
Past events and discussion reports:
Microsoft’s call for a Digital Geneva Convention (February 2017) – which should ‘commit governments to avoiding cyber-attacks that target the private sector or critical infrastructure or the use of hacking to steal intellectual property’ – attracted the attention of the digital policy community. It brought into focus the idea that, in the search for a more secure and stable Internet, Internet companies need to engage with governments and work together on reasonable policy arrangements. The proposal gave rise to many pertinent questions related to the future of digital governance, in particular in the security field. Here, we address some of them.
In April 2017, Microsoft’s Brad Smith announced three new documents that continue to shape the proposal for a Digital Geneva Convention. The first carries key clauses which should form part of the convention; the second outlines a common set of principles and behaviours for the tech sector to help protect civilians in cyberspace; the third proposes the setting up of an independent attribution organisation to identify wrongdoing. In May 2017, Smith renewed the call for a Digital Geneva Convention, in response to the WannaCry ransomware attack.
In April 2018, 34 tech companies - including Microsoft, Facebook, LinkedIn, Arm, ABB, Telefonica, Cisco, and Dell among others - have agreed on the Cybersecurity Tech Accord, publicly committing to protect and empower all customers everywhere from malicious attacks by cybercriminal enterprises and nation-states, and to improve the security, stability and resilience of cyberspace.
The four principles to which the companies committed, could be summarised as:
Signatories of the Accord will define collaborative activities they will undertake to further the Accord and will report publicly on the progress in achieving the goals.
As of June 2018, 45 companies have signed the Accord. Out of the “big five” companies, Microsoft and Facebook have signed it, while Apple, Amazon and Google have not. Signatories of the “Charter of Trust” have not yet signed the Accord. The list of signatories is available at the bottom of the homepage of the Cybersecurity Tech Accord.
In February 2018, several lead global technology companies - Siemens, IBM, Deutsche Telecom, Airbus and others - have presented their joint Charter of Trust for a Secure Digital World calling for shared ownership of cyber and IT security by various stakeholders, responsibility throughout the supply chain, security by default, education, certification for critical infrastructure and solution, transparency and response, regulatory framework, and joint initiatives.
The 10 principles of the Charter could be summarised as:
The nine signatories are listed in the Charter document.
The Internet industry is under increasing pressure by governments to provide digital information to be used in criminal investigations and anti-terrorist activities. Traditional channels for international cooperation are slow and cumbersome. A regular legal process for obtaining digital evidence via Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLATs) may take at least ten months. To bring the legal system up to speed for the digital era, Google has proposed new norms for providing digital evidence to foreign governments.
Google’s proposal would allow law enforcement to request digital evidence directly from Internet companies, bypassing the need to go through MLAT channels. According to the proposal, this would work only between countries that adhere to privacy, human rights, and due process standards.
Cybersecurity is among the main concerns of governments, Internet users, technical and business communities. Cyberthreats and cyberattacks are on the increase, and so is the extent of the financial loss. Read more about Cybersecurity
Cyber-attacks can have a background in international relations, or bring about the consequences that can escalate to a political and diplomatic level. An increasing number of states appear to be developing their own cyber-tools for the defense, offence and intelligence related to cyberconflict.
The use of cyber-weapons by states - and, more generally, the behavior of states in cyberspace in relation to maintaining international peace and security - is moving to the top of the international agenda. Read more about Cyberconflict
The concept of global public goods can be linked to many aspects of Internet governance. The most direct connections are found in areas of access to the Internet infrastructure, protection of knowledge developed through Internet interaction, protection of public technical standards, and access to online education. Read more about Global public goods
The human rights basket includes online aspects of freedom of expression, privacy and data protection, rights of people with disabilities and women’s rights online. Yet, other human rights come into place in the realm of digital policy, such as children’s rights, and rights afforded to journalists and the press. The same rights that people have offline must also be protected online is the underlying principle for human rights on the Internet, and has been firmly established by the UN General Assembly and UN Human Rights Council resolutions. Read more about Other human rights
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Curator: Stephanie Borg Psaila
[Last updated: 24 April 2018]
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