United States on Cyber Security

[pic 1]

SCHOOL OF LAW,

CHRIST UNIVERSITY

CYBER LAW

CIA-III

UNITED NATIONS ON CYBERSECURITY AND RELATED ISSUES

Justine George

VII BBA LLB A

1216316

United Nations (UN) on Cyber Space

The issue of cyber security has been an ignored area at the international arena as it had been given a National Treatment by all the states within their particular jurisdiction. This was a delusion as cyber space cannot be restricted to a particular jurisdiction and in doing so, a lot of chaos and confusion arose. With the growth of cyber capabilities by a number of states, policymakers as well as scholars have been calling for the negotiation of a new international treaty to regulate cyber space. United Nations had not come up with a framework for cyber law in international level up until 2011, when the United Nations General Assembly decided to form an inter-governmental expert group to conduct a comprehensive study of the problem of cybercrime and responses to it by the Member States, the international community and the private sector, including the exchange of information on national legislation, best practices, technical assistance and international cooperation.

The first session of the expert group was conducted in Vienna in 2011, which included 15 member group of experts from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and also included Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Canada, Egypt, Estonia, Germany, India, Indonesia, and Japan. The expert group reviewed and adopted different topics and a methodology for the study. The topics up for consideration included the problem of cybercrime, legal responses to cybercrime, crime prevention and criminal justice capabilities and other responses to cybercrime, international organizations, and technical assistance.

One of the major findings by the group in their report submitted by them determined that current international law, including the law of armed conflict, applies to state behavior in cyberspace. The report addressed and accepted the full applicability of international law to state behavior in cyber space, extended traditional transparency and confidence-building measures, and  recommended international cooperation and capacity building to make information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure more secure around the world. There was a risk of initiation of cyber conflict among the states and the UN had to address and mitigate these issues through dialogues and confidence building process. Various other options suggested related to areas such as harmonization of laws, accession to existing international or regional cybercrime instruments, the development of new international legal instruments, strengthening mechanisms for international cooperation and obtaining of extraterritorial evidence in practice and capacity building for law enforcement and criminal justice institutions.