Russia has again fallen into the “company” of states that threaten international security. The UN Security Council held a meeting on cybersecurity and the fight against cyberattacks, during which representatives of several UN member states condemned in their speeches the regular Russian attacks in virtual space aimed at destabilizing Ukrainian infrastructure.
“At the very beginning of Russia’s unprovoked and illegal war against Ukraine, entities linked to the Russian state launched an offensive cyber operation aimed at destabilizing Ukraine, its energy system and its satellite communications,” he said. said U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield. “Russia and its associated cyber actors throughout the invasion continue to attack Ukraine’s private and public sectors.”
Participants in the Arria Formula Cybersecurity Meeting (informal meeting with frank exchange of views – GA) believe that the UN Security Council should require UN member states to respect the standards of behavior responsible in cyberspace. Cyberattacks, in their view, are becoming an increasingly serious threat to the infrastructure of various states.
“We called this meeting because the virtual sites and services we use daily are coming under increasing attack,” said Linda Thomas-Greenfield. “The targets are news sites, government servers that keep our water and air clean, that control our electricity supply, transportation and other aspects of daily life. More and more often, the threats we face online come not only from individual attackers, but also from states trying to disrupt critical parts of the infrastructure.
The United States and other members of the Security Council believe that it is up to the Security Council to deal with attacks in cyberspace – and to punish the countries that commit them, in the same way as it deals with physical attacks. and conflicts. Russia does not agree with this: it believes that this issue should remain within the competence of the General Assembly.
“Obviously, practical steps to create a peaceful and secure information space, as well as the opinions of other countries on this issue, are of little concern to the United States and its allies,” said Nadezhda Sokolova, First Secretary of the Russian permanent mission to the UN, said at the meeting. “All they want is political and propaganda effect. In this context, the attempts of Western delegations to accuse Russia of all cyber sins, going from a sore head to a healthy one, do not surprise us. Their objective is obvious: to conceal their own aggressive actions in the information space.
UN High Commissioner for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu has stressed that international law, including human rights laws, should be applied in cyberspace the same as in real space .
“The UN Secretary General often says that cyberspace is not a lawless space,” said Izumi Nakamitsu. – Over the past 20 years, the General Assembly has achieved significant results in this area. States agreed that international laws, and in particular the Charter of the United Nations, are applicable and fundamental to maintaining peace and stability in cyberspace and must be used to develop an open, safe, stable, accessible and peaceful cyberspace.
Not only Russia was criticized at the meeting. Speakers noted the actions of some other states – Iran, China, North Korea – which refuse to follow the principles of responsible behavior in cyberspace.
“North Korea has launched large-scale cyberattacks that have hit critical infrastructure in more than 150 countries around the world,” US Permanent Representative to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said. “By committing cybercrimes, the DPRK has diverted more than $1 billion to fund its illegal ballistic missile and weapons of mass destruction program, becoming a threat to the economic stability of every UN member state.”
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