The Biden Administration’s ambitious new National Cybersecurity Strategy will significantly improve cyber defence. Written for cyberspace as it exists and operates now, it abandons the previous emphasis on deterrence, which has not worked, and focuses on resilience and regulation. It also shifts important security responsibilities to developers and providers of IT services and products, and creates new opportunities for close …
Top 5 Cyber Policy Articles to Read For 2023
The past year has been a busy one for cyber and digital diplomacy. Discussions by the UN Ad Hoc Committee on Cybercrime and the UN Open-ended Working Group on responsible state behaviour in cyberspace have advanced global debate on these issues and have included much more participation from the Global South. However, decisions about the participation of non-governmental stakeholders left …
Europe’s Risky Plan for the Internet
Over the past few months, the European Commission, along with European telecommunication providers, have reignited an old debate about the way traffic is meant to flow through the internet. Premised under the decade-old idea of the ‘Sending Party Network Pays’ (SPNP) model, the intention is to require content providers to pay telecom operators for the traffic they carry on their …
Getting the (Digital) Indo-Pacific Economic Framework Right
On the eve of the Tokyo Quad Summit in May 2022, President Biden unveiled the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), visualising cooperation across the Indo-Pacific based on four pillars: trade; supply chains; clean energy, decarbonisation and infrastructure; and tax and anti-corruption. Galvanised by the US, the other 13 founding members of the IPEF are Australia, Brunei Darussalam, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic …
Three Pivots Towards Digital Inclusion
While the pandemic has created a new awareness of the importance of digital inclusion, we need to expand the conversation beyond accessibility and literacy and towards human-centric strategies to combat newer forms of biases and gaps. Current discussions about digital inclusion need to take into account three elements in particular: smart technology bias, data citizenship and platform cooperativism. If there’s …
Incorporating Cybersecurity into EU Policy Formation
As the EU strives to strengthen its cyber resilience, it becomes ever more important for its institutions to have coherent advice on the cybersecurity implications of legislative and regulatory decisions. Current practice, including in the context of the Digital Market Act (DMA), suggests action is needed to establish a policy-agnostic technical mechanism to generate such advice, develop important partnerships and …
Unpacking Brazil’s Cyber Diplomacy
Brazil’s diplomacy has historically been one of soft power and brokering discussions. In Internet governance, the country has been internationally recognised for to its multi-stakeholder governance model and for advocating for privacy in the digital age. As cyber threats become a national security concern and a key part of the political agenda in the run-up to 2022 presidential elections, the …
Data Protection in China
In the summer of 2021, China’s National People’s Congress passed two pieces of data-related legislation, the Data Security Law (DSL) and the Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL). These laws, which entered into force in September and November respectively, form the centre of what will become a comprehensive regulatory architecture governing all important aspects of data collection, storage, processing, trading and …
Revamping the EU’s Technology Partnerships
The EU is expanding its global partnerships in the technological and digital realm. However, its approach to the Global South countries has differed markedly from its approach to developing partnerships with the US and Asian countries. Discussion of the best ways to partner with Global South countries has been limited and many areas remain unexplored. Current mechanisms risk being not …
Net Politics in Africa
African governments’ views on cybersecurity are not homogenous and actions that indicate ideals of “net nationalism” continue to emerge in parts of Africa. A politics of net nationalism utterly focused on individual governmental interests will imperil international cooperation, mutual legal assistance and the cross-border flow of information, and may derail international cybersecurity efforts, especially harmful to a region like Africa …