Needed : A global plan for cybersecurity
The story of notorious French drug dealer Charles Sobhraj will go down as one of the biggest manhunts in the history of modern crime. The ace conman had successfully evaded police across the world, before being apprehended by Indian sleuths first in the beach town of Goa, and then finally, after a successful jailbreak, by Nepalese police. Now incarcerated in a prison in Nepal, the criminal was brought down thanks to intel provided by Interpol, the global police.
Though the case falls in the physical space of criminology, it bears comparisons with the need for collaborating and tackling of cybercrime on a global level.
Why global
Let’s face it. Cybersecurity is no longer a local crime scene like the kind featured in the celluloid world of Gotham City. The digital world has changed many things. It has witnessed an erosion of online trust. It calls for ready and on-demand availability of online data. It has allowed criminals to operate across continents while remaining faceless or masquerading under aliases. Some of the world’s biggest attacks on infrastructure have been perpetrated by hacker groups based in rogue nations on opposite sides of the world. This itself suggests the need for collaboration of governments or cybercrime watchdog organizations. Now add to this the ever-developing landscape of futuristic technologies. Add to this the ominous situations of a volatile geopolitical order, armed conflicts, economic uncertainty, and global dearth of cyber talent and you see why the need must be taken very seriously.
Collaboration also needs to be extended to the industry as a whole. Many cybercrime experts are advocating public-private partnerships to address cyber inequity between organizations in the cybersecurity field in such a manner that cyber resilience becomes the rule rather than the exception.
The benefits
The benefits of a global plan to counter cybercrime cover a wide range of areas ranging from global relations to some key concerns of the cybersecurity industry. A global plan could benefit in the following areas:
- On a global front
- Curbing of global crime
- Preventing or minimizing the spread of misinformation/disinformation leading to political upheavals and political tensions
- Interception of imminent political coups, compromised election procedures, and geopolitical attacks
- Conduct of judicial processes for crimes by tracking of criminal activity
- Rooting out criminals taking asylum in rogue nations through the monitoring of communications and sharing of intelligence
- Sharing of best practices of nations on platforms like the World Economic Forum (WEF)
- Sharing of information on hacker groups known to be operating
- Greater effectiveness in privacy regulations like Europe’s GDPR ruling
- On an industry level
- Generally serving to create awareness about organizations needing to fortify their cybersecurity defenses
- Generally boosting confidence in cybersecurity circles
- Addressing talent shortages (1) and knowledge gaps that are presently plaguing the industry through global platforms and forums
- Restoration of online trust albeit it being an uphill battle
- Defining ways and means to ensure safe and effective use of AI and Machine Learning (ML)
- Making the case for robust Zero Trust Architecture and Behavioural Analytics in organizational systems
- Achieving clarity in cybersecurity circles as to whether the much-talked-about Metaverse will come to stay
- Embedding the importance of regulatory compliance
The challenges
Global platforms and global plans are easier said than done. A global forum needs collaboration, cooperation, and understanding at the highest level before it percolates into policy. Here are some of the challenges foreseen for the establishment of a concerted global plan to counter cyber threats.
- Consensus and collective will of nations to collaborate on cybersecurity
- Addressing the issue of rogue nations and those known to encourage cyber terrorist groups
- Presence and participation of all levels of industry
- Readiness to share information on cyber technologies, tools, best practices and findings on cyber attacks
- Alerting participants as to imminent cyber-attacks based on intelligence collected
Recent developments
In a remarkable demonstration of its vision that “today’s investments in cyberspace and digital technology diplomacy” will shape “nearly all foreign policy issues,” including international security, democracy, human rights, global health, and climate change, the US Department of State’s Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy (the “Bureau”) released its International Cyberspace and Digital Policy Strategy (3) in May 2024. The Policy aims to achieve broad “digital solidarity” with other countries. The policy aims to bring together like-minded nations that are committed to promotion of safe technology and resilient cyber practices, with the US working with “international, multilateral, and multistakeholder bodies.” The policy which has been developed by the administration with buy-in from the country’s federal agencies will witness the US assuming the onus of leading initiatives to ensure a ‘more inclusive, secure, prosperous and equitable world.’
What the future holds
The Economic Times (ET)’s CIO edition article (2) gives a good insight into the global position of many countries on the cybersecurity front. Three pillars for effective cybersecurity are proposed :
- a strong legal apparatus and measures (where it reports that 177 countries have at least one regulation in place for legal recourse in the event of cyber crime)
- widespread awareness campaigns conducted (where at least 152 countries have reached out to their populace at large)
- ongoing cybersecurity initiatives (where at least 127 countries have reported some ongoing measures or the other)
The World Economic Forum continues to drive its initiatives for cybersecurity resilience through its Center for Long Term Cybersecurity (CLTC). Its Cybersecurity Futures 2030 initiative aims at setting up and disseminating plans that will enable practitioners to embrace digital security.
Yet despite measures taken by individual countries to shore up defences in their own countries, the fact remains that a global plan – of the kind mooted by the US – remains the need of the hour. A plan that goes beyond a single geolocation; one that encompasses governments, industry, public and private enterprises, academia, and society at large.
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