Cyberspace Cooperation

The Global Cooperation in Cyberspace Initiative seeks to reduce conflict, crime and other disruptions in cyberspace and promote stability, innovation and inclusion.

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GCSC to Convene in New Delhi

The Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace (GCSC) will meet in New Delhi on November 20-21 in the margins of the Global Conference on CyberSpace (GCCS) hosted by the Government of India.

This meeting will focus on the GCSC’s prioritized topics for 2017, including the “public core of the Internet.” The GCSC will build on the results from its previous meeting at Black Hat USA 2017 in Las Vegas, in July. Work will also focus on the drafting of a consensus document to explain the position of the GCSC on key issues related the stability of cyberspace at this critical juncture.

Over the course of two days, GCSC Commissioners will take the opportunity to engage with a range of academic and government experts on critical initiatives in the field of international cyberspace stability, as well as confirm research and policy initiatives. The GCSC will also announce the launch of their Government Advisory Board—a body of government experts that will advise the Commission on its work.

Commissioners will take an active part as panelists and moderators throughout various sessions of the Global Conference on CyberSpace.

Launched at the Munich Security Conference in February 2017, the GCSC is the first organization of its kind dedicated solely to developing and advocating for norms and policies to improve cyberspace stability and security. The Hague-based organization is comprised of 27 Commissioners and chaired by Marina Kaljurand (Estonia), and includes co-chairs Michael Chertoff (USA) and Latha Reddy (India).

For a complete list of GCSC Commissioners, click here.

Previous Commission meetings:

EWI Hosts Russia-U.S. High Level Dialogue on Cyberspace Cooperation

On October 13 in Brussels, Belgium, the EastWest Institute (EWI) hosted a Russia-U.S. High Level Dialogue on Cyberspace Cooperation with the Russian National Association of International Information Security (NAISS). The dialogue brought together a diverse set of cyber experts, former government officials and business leaders to discuss norms of responsible state behavior in cyberspace, cooperation on incident response, and countering malicious use of the Internet.

Image: "Circuit 2" (CC BY-NC 2.0) by Mark, Vicki, Ellaura and Mason

EWI Returns to CyberCrimeCon

On October 10, the EastWest Institute is returning to be a part of the 2017 CyberCrimeCon in the Russian capital of Moscow. The conference will bring together around 1,000 business leaders, experts and law enforcement officials from around the world, to discuss new challenges, best practices and solutions to high-tech cyber crimes.

Some of the hard-pressed topics this year included preventing cyber attacks by using strategic intelligence to create proactive defenses, building accurate forecasts to enhance cybersecurity, and promoting the use of intelligence driven responses to cyber threats.

This event is hosted by Group-IВ which is a global leader in preventing and investigating high-tech crimes.

Learn more about the conference here.

Click here to read EWI’s participation last year.

Photo credit: "Data Security Breach" (CC BY 2.0) by Visual Content

Michael Chertoff Discusses Cybersecurity Threats and Needs

The cybersecurity threat landscape has intensified as attacks have grown more serious in recent years, said Michael Chertoff in an interview with Bloomberg.

Chertoff, a member of EWI’s Board of Directors, said cybersecurity professionals needed to understand the nature of threats and the kinds of strategies necessary to counter them.

Chertoff also discussed the proliferation of internet-connected devices nowadays where there are more consumers linked to the internet, triggering new threats.

Watch the full interview here.

EWI Speaks at Europol-INTERPOL Cybercrime Conference

On Thursday, September 28, Andreas Kuehn, Senior Program Associate, will give a talk titled “Towards Cyber Resilience: Policy Challenges for Securing IoT” at the 5th Europol-INTERPOL Cybercrime Conference. He is joined by Microsoft’s Benedikt Abendroth, Senior Cybersecurity Strategist. The event will be held at Europol’s headquarters in The Hague on September 27-29. The panel — consisting of senior law enforcement officials, industry experts and technologists — addresses current and emerging challenges from the Internet of Things.

Q: What is EWI bringing to the Europol-Interpol Conference this year?

EWI appreciates the opportunity to participate in the Europol-Interpol Conference, which offers a unique venue to engage with law enforcement, public safety officials and industry representatives. IoT for public safety and security, particularly law enforcement and first responders, have received much less attention compared to other applications areas for cities. In particular, we look forward to discussing the importance of cyber resilience – the idea that complex systems need to be designed to reflect the rapid change in disruptive technologies, and the need for information security and business continuity. We believe that law enforcement is a key partner in such initiatives as cyber resilience is a necessity to ensure public safety and security in a smart city, both in the cyber and the physical realm.

Q: What is the growing relevance of IoT in the cybersecurity space?

Internet-of-Things technologies are actively being used by consumers, enterprises, cities and governments today. Yet, securing IoT remains a major challenge, given the large number of devices, lack of security and an ever expanding IoT ecosystem. The Mirai Botnet attack last year, where nearly a million users across Europe were thrown off the internet after criminals tried to hijack home routers as part of a coordinated cyber attack, gave us an idea of how IoT devices can be harnessed for DDoS attacks.

EWI, together with its partners, Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks and Unisys, have set out to produce a guide that describes key elements towards successfully securing IoT in cities’ networks. The guide references best practices, relevant standards and frameworks to manage IoT cybersecurity in an urban environment. The digitalization of cities has led to a transformation of how services are delivered – providing compact guidance through the EWI guide to raise cybersecurity awareness of senior city officials and leaders is critical to keeping smart cities safe and secure.

Q: How are these topics relevant to global security and the current trends in cyberspace?

Modern urban areas will increasingly become recognized as the prime locales where digital activities will continue to evolve. IoT brings an entire host of new challenges as cities will face significant disruption due to complex services and technical dependencies. Ransomware targeting key city functions, such as emergency response communications or dispatching services is just one example. When complex, tightly coupled systems fail, there is potential for “failure propagation” – in a metropolitan area with millions of residents, the impact could be very significant.

We need to remind city leaders that cyber doesn’t end at the city’s border. What responsibilities do cities face when deploying IoT in critical functions? What are inward facing risks versus outward facing risks? These are issues that EWI and its partners delve into - what would happen if a city’s combined IoT devices would be orchestrated to attack another city, possibly in a different country?

Unfortunately, IoT deployment today, particularly in cities, is hardly assessed with an eye on global security implications. In terms of international security, one can easily think of scenarios where vulnerabilities in such connected devices could be exploited to further destabilize regional security in an area already smoldering with conflict. Again, cyber resilience is a critical tool to ask the right questions for assessing risk and building up capabilities and capacities to prepare respond and reinvent before, during and after a cyber incident.

Q: How is EWI playing a role to bring attention/push for cooperation/solutions to these topics?

EWI is engaged in a long-term process through its breakthrough group that focuses on key questions regarding cyber resilience, public safety, cybersecurity and privacy, as well as governance for smart city initiatives. Sister breakthrough groups focus on systemic risk and cyber insurance as well as on procurement requirements for ICT services and products and cyber supply chain risk – both of these broader issues are relevant in the context of securing smart cities.

Representatives of our corporate partners from the global ICT industry as well as government officials take an active part in the process. Most recently, we held the Palo Alto Progress Roundtable in early September, convening regulators, city officials, and industry experts from China, India, Russia, and the United States to discuss, debate and formulate potential solutions to these pressing issues.

Global Cooperation in Cyberspace Progress Roundtable - Palo Alto 2017

On September 6-7, the EastWest Institute (EWI) hosted the Global Cooperation in Cyberspace Progress Roundtable at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in Palo Alto, California. This roundtable was the fourth iteration of an annual strategic review of EWI's cyberspace program with 40 leaders of EWI's five cyber cooperation breakthrough groups and other key stakeholders in attendance. EWI's President and CEO Cameron Munter gave a lunchtime speech discussing the intersection between his conception of new diplomacy and cyber cooperation.

Over the course of two days, participants worked together to present each the groups' recent work, discuss progress to date and examine next steps to refine our collective undertaking to stimulate responsible global action in cyberspace. The Global Cooperation in Cyberspace Progress Roundtable was organized with support from, among others, Microsoft, Huawei Technologies, Unisys, Sonus Networks, Palo Alto Networks, Qihoo 360, NXP Semiconductors, CenturyLink, VEON, JPMorgan Chase, Marsh & McLennan, The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

The roundtable opened with two in-depth workshops designed to hone two forthcoming EWI reports. The first of these discussed the future of IoT-connected smart cities, outlining a draft guide to help city managers, real-estate developers and other relevant decision-makers effectively develop and deploy IoT technology in urban environments. The second of these workshops was designed to revise a draft international report focusing on how to balance encryption and lawful access to data.

The second day of the roundtable was devoted to a broader review and planning as well additional examination of the first day's topics. Discussions included understanding and insuring systemic cyber risk, promoting norms of responsible behavior in cyberspace and increasing access to more secure ICT products and services. In addition, special attention was paid to EWI's continued support of the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace, which is developing proposals for norms and policies to enhance international security and guide responsible state and non-state behavior in cyberspace.

"We had an extraordinary group of business and government leaders from across the globe join us in Palo Alto,” noted Bob Campbell, EWI Board Member and CEO of Campbell Global Services. “Under the leadership of Bruce McConnell, focused and robust discussions took place concerning the critical issues being addressed by each of our five breakthrough groups. I am confident that our work will lead to agreement and action on some of the most vexing issues of our time."

Feedback received during the two day workshop, presentations and conversations will be used to guide and revise the upcoming work plans for the five breakthrough groups. This was particularly invaluable to the process of publishing the two above mentioned reports: a guide to developing secure, smart cities and an encryption paper outlining ways to try to find common ground in the debate between encryption and lawful access to data. Input from the roundtable will be subsumed within these drafts, which will be published in the coming months.

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