THE WATCH STAFF
The United States has signed on to an international accord on cyberspace behavior that was established in 2018.
Eighty countries have signed the Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace, a framework for norms and laws for cybersecurity and warfare, according to Axios news. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris made the announcement November 10, 2021, after meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.
(Pictured: U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris meets with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on November 10, 2021.)
The French government began the voluntary initiative, which also counts tech companies — including Microsoft and Google — nonprofits and universities among its signatories.
“The U.S. was glaring by its absence because China and Russia didn’t agree to it either,” Christopher Painter, a former cybersecurity diplomat in the administrations of presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, told CNN.
The accord has nine principles, which include defending elections from cyberattacks, protecting intellectual property rights and condemning the use of hacking tools by nonstate actors.
Harris said she looked forward to discussing cooperation with France on other issues — space and climate change, for example — and she vowed to “continue to work together and renew the focus that we have always had on our partnership,” CNN reported.
The decision to join the accord came as the Biden administration seeks help in combating Eastern European and Russian ransomware groups that have targeted U.S. companies and infrastructure. In May 2021, a criminal group forced Colonial Pipeline, which provides gas to the East Coast, to shut down for several days.
Almost U.S. $600 million has been paid by ransomware victims in the first six months of 2021 amid a surge in the crimes, according to a U.S. Treasury Department report released in October 2021.
U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken on October 27, 2021, announced plans for the State Department to create a new Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy.
“We have a major stake in shaping the digital revolution that is happening around us, and making sure that it serves our people, protects our interests, boosts our competitiveness and upholds our values,” Blinken said during remarks at the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute, according to political website The Hill.
The State Department had already offered a U.S. $10 million reward for information on the hackers responsible for the Colonial Pipeline incident.
Microsoft President Brad Smith, a vocal advocate of the accord, said it is necessary because cyberspace is blurring the lines between peace and conflict, according to CNN.
“So much of the … hostilities between nations happen not as acts of overt war,” Smith said, “but acts that feel very different from what we should expect in times of peace. They happen in cyberspace.”
IMAGE CREDIT: REUTERS