Russia Presses for Global Cyber-Security Treaty to Thwart Technology Arms Race
GENEVA -- International rules are needed to boost cyber- security and prevent information technology warfare, cyber- crime and cyber-terror, officials said at a U.N. meeting on international disarmament. The preliminary talks involve the idea of including cyber-security in a disarmament agreement, said a participant. The meeting was of the U.N. Institute for Disarmament Research meeting on communications technology and international security. “It looks like the Russians are pushing for a cyber-security treaty,” the participant said.
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Reliance on a robust communications infrastructure brings new threats and challenges to ensuring information security, Ambassador Valery Loshchinin, permanent representative of the Russian Federation to the U.N. in Geneva, said in an interview during the conference. Damage from hostile use of information and communication technologies is like that from conventional weapons and weapons of mass destruction, he said.
Extremist groups using information technology for terrorism and cyber-crime are prime challenges, said Konstantin Machabely, of the Russian Federation Ministry of Internal Affairs, in an interview. Cyber-crime, cyber-terror and military use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) are three obstacles to international information security, Loshchinin said. Talks and cooperation on military use of communications networks are lagging progress seen in other areas, he said.
Technological advancements have transformed warfare, said Loshchinin. Selective use of cyber-warfare weapons could win a battle, he said. “In the near future, control over ICTs and psychological factors may become more crucial than possession of nuclear weapons,” Loshchinin said: “Information weapons, like nuclear arms, may serve to assert political pressure and aggression.” Lack of consensus on international law worsens the problem, Loshchinin said.
Military information operations occupy a special place in the use of force, said Sergei Korotkov of the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense. U.S. military specialists describe information operations as combining radio-electronic warfare, computer network and psychological operations, deception, ensuring operational security or secrecy and other activities designed to disrupt, damage or capture human or automated decision-making mechanisms, Korotkov said through a translator.
No international law bans or allows or enables regulation of information operations, Korotkov said. A good cause, such as promoting democracy, doesn’t justify use of information operations in another country during peacetime, he said. The international community should resolve issues over legality of response to information operations, he said. It’s important to establishing an attack’s source and jurisdiction, he said.
National responses to cyber-attacks are legal for self- defense under the U.N. charter, Korotkov said. “If cyber- attacks with global computer networks are qualified by the United Nations as a military attack, the victim party or state in this case would have the legal right for self- defense with the use of any conventional means or weapons,” Korotkov said.
Preventing a new era of confrontation is a priority for the international community “because it may cause a new spiral of arms race” involving new scientific and technological achievements and “diverting enormous economic resources from peaceful and sustainable development,” Loshchinin said.
The two-day conference “is part of a larger Russian agenda to deal with the problem of cyber-security,” a participant said. Another questioned whether the ITU might be a better venue, since its treaty instruments have evolved over about 150 years to boost interoperability and avoid technical harm to other countries’ communications networks. Those who work on disarmament don’t necessarily have telecom backgrounds and vice versa, an official said.
The Russian delegation and others insisted during 1988 International Telecommunication Regulations treaty talks on provisions that would prevent harm to other countries’ communications networks, said Tony Rutkowski, VeriSign vice president of regulatory affairs and standards. The fact of 180 countries signing the agreement indicates its broad support, said Rutkowski, who coordinated the ITU secretariat during the 1988 treaty conference.
Discussions Thursday and Friday are part of preparations for the U.N. group of governmental experts meeting in 2009, Loshchinin said.
The U.N. Institute for Disarmament Research is a bridge between the research community and U.N. member countries, aiding deliberations in the Conference on Disarmament and elsewhere. Conference treaty talks are separate from the U.N. system.