core sector communique

International Conversation on Cybersecurity Is Under Way

By Charlene Porter

Staff Writer

 

Washington - Cybersecurity is the fundamental base supporting all Internet activity, be it political, economic or social. October, recognized as National Cybersecurity Awareness Month since 2002 in the United States, is a time when governments, businesses and individuals must all recognize their role in maintaining cybersecurity, according to the U.S. State Department's coordinator for cyber issues, Christopher Painter.

 

Painter's remarks at an October 18 Washington press briefing echoed the proclamation for National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, issued by the White House October 3 on behalf of President Obama.

 

"This month, we recognize the role we all play in ensuring our information and communications infrastructure is interoperable, secure, reliable, and open to all," the proclamation says.

 

The proclamation also notes the Obama administration's release in May 2011 of an International Strategy for Cyberspace, addressing a range of cyberspace issues in one framework.

 

"It sets an agenda for partnering with other nations and better defines how we can ensure the secure, free flow of information and promote universal rights, privacy, and prosperity," says the proclamation.

 

These issues form a "new foreign policy imperative for us," Painter said at the briefing, one that the administration will pursue among the community of nations with "patient, persistent and creative diplomacy."

 

Information technologies have become such a critical tool in modern life, Painter said, that the international community must develop a mutual policy built upon some core values. In an ongoing multilateral dialogue, he said, nations will be discussing "shared norms" about cyberspace conduct that will sustain the interoperability, openness, security and reliability that users rely upon. In this discussion, the United States will promote longstanding values - such as respect for freedoms, respect for privacy, protection from crime - and some values unique to the Internet: network stability, reliable access and governance protecting the interests of all those who use the Internet responsibly.

 

Painter made his remarks at the State Department's Foreign Press Center, where journalists from an array of international media outlets questioned him about cyberattacks rumored to be stewing in any number of capitals. Painter would not comment on any particular report or individual country, but acknowledged that the danger of plots that could create online mayhem are very real, and must be taken seriously. But when one reporter repeated a story circulating in Asia about the prospect of a "large-scale cyberwar," Painter gave the story no credence.

 

"Our job is to avoid any kind of cyber conflict," Painter responded. "I don't think you'd have a cyber conflict outside a normal conflict; I don't think that's likely to happen." The State Department's cyber envoy repeated the need for nations to maintain an ongoing dialogue to reach mutual understandings for online conduct.

 

Though the October observance shines a spotlight on cybersecurity, Painter said it is not an end in itself. Rather, he said, cybersecurity should be viewed as an ongoing activity that creates the foundation to support all other online activities.

 

It's a foundation "that enables the economic .... innovation on the Internet, that enables the social growth and the free expression and Internet freedom," Painter said. "All that can be compromised if, for instance, criminals ran roughshod on the Internet." Expression and innovation must coexist with regulation and security, Painter said, and they must be maintained in a proper balance so security does not override expression and innovation.

 

Painter said many aspects of this issue are discussed at the Web site staysafeonline.org, maintained by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. "Stop, Think and Connect" is the motto for promotion of National CyberSecurity Awareness Month, during which officials hope to increase knowledge and awareness about safe conduct on the Internet for individuals and businesses.

 

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.)