01/31/10
from Raw Story
UN agency calls for global cyberwarfare
treaty, ‘driver’s license’ for Web users
By Agence France-Presse
The world needs a treaty to prevent cyber attacks becoming an all-out war, the
head of the main UN communications and technology agency warned Saturday.
International Telecommunications Union secretary general Hamadoun Toure gave his
warning at a World Economic Forum debate where experts said nations must now
consider when a cyber attack becomes a declaration of war.
With attacks on Google from China a major talking point in Davos, Toure said the
risk of a cyber conflict between two nations grows every year.
He proposed a treaty in which countries would engage not to make the first cyber
strike against another nation.
"A cyber war would be worse than a tsunami -- a catastrophe," the UN official
said, highlighting examples such as attacks on Estonia last year.
He proposed an international accord, adding: "The framework would look like a
peace treaty before a war."
Countries should guarantee to protect their citizens and their right to access
to information, promise not to harbor cyber terrorists and "should commit
themselves not to attack another."
John Negroponte, former director of US intelligence, said intelligence agencies
in the major powers would be the first to "express reservations" about such an
accord.
Susan Collins, a US Republican senator who sits on several Senate military and
home affairs committees, said the prospect of a cyber attack sparking a war is
now being considered in the United States.
"If someone bombed the electric grid in our country and we saw the bombers
coming in it would clearly be an act of war.
"If that same country uses sophisticated computers to knock out our electricity
grid, I definitely think we are getting closer to saying it is an act of war,"
Collins said.
Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer for Microsoft, said "there are
at least 10 countries in the world whose internet capability is sophisticated
enough to carry out cyber attacks ... and they can make it appear to come from
anywhere."
"The Internet is the biggest command and control center for every bad guy out
there," he said.
The head of online security company McAfee told another Davos debate Friday that
China, the United States, Russia, Israel and France are among 20 countries
locked in a cyberspace arms race and gearing up for possible Internet
hostilities.
Mundie and other experts have said there is a growing need to police the
internet to clampdown on fraud, espionage and the spread of viruses.
"People don't understand the scale of criminal activity on the internet. Whether
criminal, individual or nation states, the community is growing more
sophisticated," the Microsoft executive said.
"We need a kind of World Health Organization for the Internet," he said.
"When there is a pandemic, it organizes the quarantine of cases. We are not
allowed to organize the systematic quarantine of machines that are compromised."
He also called for a "driver's license" for internet users.
"If you want to drive a car you have to have a license to say that you are
capable of driving a car, the car has to pass a test to say it is fit to drive
and you have to have insurance."
Andre Kudelski, chairman of Kudelski Group, said that a new internet might have
to be created forcing people to have two computers that cannot connect and pass
on viruses. "One internet for secure operations and one internet for freedom."
* * * * *
So many excellent ideas when great minds come together:
A UN Agency. Enough said.
Susan Collins. A RINO (Republican in name only).
Police the Internet. Too much freedom going on there.
A kind of World Health Organization. Like the one that predicted the H1N1 pandemic that never happened.
Systematic quarantine of machines. Control by those who think they should be in control.
Driver's License. Controlling authorities regulate who is authorized to use their internet.
When computers are outlawed, only outlaws will have computers.
a public service message from Geeks for Concealed Carry.