Consensus, but no new steps on int'l cooperation in cyberspace meeting

Amid lots of discussions, talks, and meetings during the first day of the two-day 2015 Global Conference on CyberSpace (GCCS) in The Hague, participants at the session on international peace and security showed some kind of consensus on the collective task ahead, but fail to agree on a concrete new approach on international cooperation in cyberspace.

The main question during the session was how international political cooperation can be reinforced and international law can be applied in order to avoid conflicts and maintain a stable cyber domain.

"We are dealing with a collective task," Estonia's Foreign Minister Keit Pentus-Rosimannus said, adding "no country can resolve cyber matters on its own."

"We need cooperation and responsible behavior by states. We need commitment on capacity building on a global level. Cyber security is not only a matter of security, but also a matter of development. Capacity building is part of the solution," she said.

The need for international cooperation to reduce the risks is clear and was supported by all panelists. For them, the need for another agreement was not present.

"We are not ready for a new UN(United Nations) level cybercrime treaty," said Julie Bishop, the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs. "We do not believe in a new treaty of new agreements. That would be weaker than the Budapest Convention, which is flexible enough and can be implemented in national law."

With the Budapest Convention, Bishop referred to the Convention on Cybercrime, the first international treaty seeking to address Internet and computer crime by harmonizing national laws, improving investigative techniques, and increasing cooperation among nations.

It was signed in Budapest in 2001 by members of the Council of Europe and came into force in 2004. The total number of ratifications is now 45, including non--members of the Council of Europe, Australia, Japan and the United States.

"I agree with Bishop that we don't need a new treaty," Christopher Painter, U.S. Department of State Coordinator for Cyber Issues, said. "We don't need one form. We need to build consensus with all states involved."

Chen Xu, Ambassador of China to the Netherlands, emphasized the importance of a leading role for the UN.

In 2013, the UN Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) published a report on developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security focusing on building a "peaceful, secure, resilient and open ICT(information and communication technology) environment".

According to the Ambassador, this report could contribute to the coordination of states behavior in cyberspace.

Chen Xu also recalled that China, Russia and others had submitted a draft of an International Code of Conduct for Information Security to the UN General Assembly in 2011, and the draft was updated in January 2015.

"The draft puts forward a comprehensive set of proposals of international norms on responsible behavior in cyberspace. We welcome all exchanges of views relating to the draft," he added.

For Matt Thomlinson, the Vice President of Security of Microsoft, the current progress in tackling cyber issues is not enough.

"Over the next decade, the number of internet users will grow to 4.75 billion, connecting more than 91 percent of people in developed countries and nearly 69 percent of those in emerging countries," he said. "A highly connected future will go along with increasing insecurity."

"Microsoft has been thinking about this," he added. "Progress is made, but so far not sufficient. Therefore we developed six basic norms, not a treaty, but principles. Unfortunately the norms are not accepted yet."

The six norms Thomlinson was referring to are in short "that states should not target ICT companies, should have a clear principle-based policy for handling product and service vulnerabilities, should exercise restraint in developing cyber weapons, should commit to non-proliferation activities, should limit their engagement in cyber offensives operations and should assist private sector efforts to detect, contain, respond to, and recover from events in cyberspace".

Moderator Joseph S. Nye, University Distinguished Service Professor and former Dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, summarized the meeting with a positive note.

"Norms do exist, but it is worth noticing that we need time to develop them. Cyber security problems started only in the late 90s, so this cyber security question is relatively new. We are making progress, but we are still young and need some time." Enditem