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Russian draft UN resoluion on information security winning support thanks to Snowden

November 11, 2013   ·   0 Comments

 

Photo: EPA

A Russian-proposed draft UN resolution calling for an international code of conduct for information security is beginning to win support as Washington loses moral authority in the wake of Edward Snowden’s revelations.

The electronic surviellance scandal involving the US National Security Agency (NSA) has already helped China win a computer hacking dispute with the United States. And now Russia too looks to benefit from the NSA spy row: its draft resolutoin entitled “Developments in the Field of Informatization and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security” has won approval from the UN General Assembly.

The document uses the term “imformation security” in regard to dangerous content that might potentially destabilize the political situation or cause other harm instead of the American term “cyber security” that specifically refers to technology protecting computer networks from physical threats or viruses.

Drafted in cooperation with 40 countries, including China, Brazil and Egypt, the resolution calls for identifying countries’ rights and responsibilities in the global information space, promoting their responsible behaviors, enhancing their cooperation in addressing common challenges and ensuring that the global information space be used to the benefit of social and economic development and international stability and security. Pakistan urged tougher regulations, arguing that offensive cyber technology should be classified as a weapon of mass destruction.

Consequently, the UN has granted Russia’s request to expand an international working group on informatoin security from 15 to 20 members.

Prior to Snowden’s revelations, Western countries slammed the Russian initiative as an attempt to impose censorship and government control on the Web, but now that the NSA’s mass and indiscriminate spying on mobile phone and Internet users was exposed, the West will find it increasingly harder to press its point.

“The US has lost moral authority in this field,” Russian diplomatic sources say.

“We’re losing leverage internationally” to China, Russia and other countries seeking to give more authority to the United Nations and governments, Hoover Institution professor Abe Sofaer said at the fourth annual meeting on international cyber security cooperation held by the EastWest Institute. “It’s terrible,” he added.

Voice of Russia, Kommersant daily


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