Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace launched

Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace (GCSC), the new global multistakeholder body addressing risks in cyberspace, has been established during the 2017 Munich Security Conference. According to the announcement by The Kingdom of the Netherlands, The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS) and the EastWest Institute (EWI), GCSC is “a global body formed to convene key global stakeholders to develop proposals for norms and policy initiatives to improve the stability and security of cyberspace”. Headquartered in The Hague, GCSC will gather number of independent commissioners from over 15 countries and from various stakeholders, and will be chaired by the Marina Kaljurand, former Foreign Minister of Estonia and the member of the UN Group of Governmental Experts on cybersecurity. It will also be supported by Microsoft and the Internet Society (ISOC), among others. GCSC will develop proposals for norms and policies to enhance the stability of cyberspace, and work on the exchange of knowledge and ideas between governments, the business community, academia and users. GCSC commissioner and co-chair Michael Chertoff, a former Head of Homeland Security of the USA, compared the Internet to the high seas and called for global rules of cyberspace that would make it possible for everybody to use the cyberspace similarly to how international rules allow everybody to use the oceans.