Comment by Ambassador Andrey Krutskikh, Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for International Cooperation in the Field of Information Security, Acting Director of the Department of International Information Security of the MFA of Russia "Cyberspace: war or peace?" to Newsweek, 22 March 2022
24 March 2022 15:22
608-24-03-2022
Modern life is impossible without information and communications technologies (ICTs). They determine our well-being, security and survival. Relying on them, we can become richer or lose all our savings. They are transboundary and almost all-mighty. Amidst this reality, the main task is not to frighten each other with digital means, but to try to reach agreements before it is too late.
Recently, the world has witnessed a blatant outburst of information crime. Hacker groups tend to target their activities at big businesses, banks and financial institutions. Traditional principles of entrepreneurship collapse. The dependence of humanity on ever evolving ICTs makes all of us vulnerable to threats of their malicious use. Further progress is impossible without ensuring cybersecurity.
These threats are aggravated by the anonymity in information space as it impedes finding source of harmful activities. An imaginary enemy will mislead efforts to fight the real one. In these circumstances cybercrime is frequently used to disguise attacks against critical infrastructure, undermine political and economic situation of governments. An abrupt cut in electronic communications in areas like healthcare, water, sanitation or energy is equal to an emergency situation that can entail severe consequences and even loss of people's lives.
The danger is that a global ecological, anthropogenic or socio-economic disaster can be provoked in cyberspace by a political miscalculation, negligence or, as senator J. William Fulbright once wrote, by "arrogance of power".
A cyberattack, be it accidental or intended, including perpetrated under false flag, can easily trigger escalation between states, leading to a full-scale confrontation. Ensuring international information security, therefore, becomes one of the key factors that directly influence strategic stability. It is from this perspective that these issues were discussed at the Russia-US summit in Geneva in June 2021. No state is capable of protecting itself from all of these threats.
Russia has long advocated for collective action of the international community. In 1998 our country initiated the discussion on information security and conflict prevention in this sphere at the UN platform. The dialogue has evolved from a narrow expert group to a full-fledged negotiation process - a sort of cyber General Assembly - the UN Open-ended Working Group (OEWG) launched upon Russia's initiative in 2018. Our efforts are aimed at ensuring that cyberspace remains an arena of dialogue and cooperation, not settling scores. This is the only way to guarantee security for end-users around the world. States should play the leading role and have equal rights in this process.
Building a truly effective global system of information security is possible only on the basis of a just international legal regime. The existing voluntary and non-binding norms of behaviour enshrined in the UN General Assembly resolutions are not enough. Imagine what would our everyday life look like if there were no traffic rules or if they were not mandatory? Chaos, not to say more. Similarly with ICTs: in the absence of international legal regulation we are walking through a minefield.
Realizing this common knowledge, Russia was the first to call for elaborating a comprehensive code of conduct in cyberspace at the UN fora. We need a set of obligations not to use ICTs as a weapon, a means of punishment or interference in domestic affairs. We demand that ICTs never be applied to disrupt critical infrastructure, to incite violence and hatred, to perpetrate, finance or disguise terrorist, extremist and other criminal activities.
Regardless of geopolitics, Russia remains open for dialogue and cooperation on information security with all states, and the United States is not an exception. As long as our countries bear special responsibility for ensuring global peace and security, Russia invited its partners from the US to establish foundations for bilateral interaction in cyber domain.
These issues were first included in the Joint Statement on Common Security Challenges, signed by the presidents of our countries on 2 September 1998 in Moscow. Later the cooperation with the United States went through different stages, but always with our unfailing desire for practical outcomes. On 25 September 2020 President Putin put forward a comprehensive program to restore Russia - US cooperation on international information security. We were clear and candid with the suggestion to undertake concrete steps that would contribute to better security and trust. There was no concrete reaction to our proposal.
Our interaction at multilateral fora also faces difficulties. However, the attempts to block Russia-backed negotiations on ICT-security under the UN auspices were in vain. Maybe, it would be better to intensify the process by joint efforts rather than sitting out in different trenches? Has the US security benefited from Washington's decision to impede bilateral communication now? After all, this is a common challenge, and we have positive experience of cooperation with Washington under all administrations. A recent example - the Geneva agreements of President Putin and President Biden followed by the launch of bilateral dialogue on these issues on expert level.
Our prospects in the global format are quite broad. We are tasked with developing rules of responsible behaviour in information space. Other goals are to elaborate a comprehensive international convention to counter the use of ICTs for criminal purposes, to guarantee unhindered functioning of Internet while safeguarding inherent states' sovereignty and their equal rights in the World Wide Web governance.
Security in cyber domain demands international agreements. Stakes are too high to rely on a game without rules.
On 28 March - 1 April the UN headquarters in New York will host the second substantive session of the OEWG on security of and in the use of ICTs. We count on common sense of our partners that will be key to pragmatic negotiations with delegations from all UN Member States. This approach was enshrined in the UN General Assembly resolution 76/19 developed by joint efforts of Russia and the US and approved unanimously by the international community. As we know, the same logic guides our friends from developing countries.
Real cyberpeace is impossible without consensus. The latter cannot be achieved if one tries to get military-political advantages at the expense of other states' security and relies on the dictate of force or threat of its use with a view to depriving certain countries from benefits of technical progress.
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