Description:

The growing weaponization of the Internet reflects the current threat landscape, where malicious actors are conducting cyber operations with little risk to be held accountable. The increasing number and, at the same time, the challenges of conducting thorough investigation after major attacks leave people desensitized, disillusioned, and disempowered; therefore, crippling their trust in institutions and governments. The exponential growth of cyberattacks occurring amid the COVID-19 outbreak has been a shattering revelation of how malicious actors are not scrupulous of exploiting the weaknesses of critical infrastructure’s systems and networks. In this regard, the CyberPeace Institute is determined to ensure the reinforcement of these weaknesses, as it is part of its mission to assist and protect vulnerable populations. In this particular context, healthcare organizations as well as medical suppliers and manufacturers are among the most vulnerable to COVID-19 related cyber threats. The healthcare sector and its wider supply chain often rely on weak IT systems and cyber capabilities, which make these infrastructures more easily affected by the current digital divide. Not only can cyberattacks on hospitals cripple people’s trust in the whole sector, but they also put human lives at risks. The digital vulnerabilities, lack of IT capabilities and overlooked cybersecurity standards affecting healthcare organizations and related supply chain have facilitated the exposure of this sector to cyberattacks. These aspects together with the growing difficulty of holding malicious actors accountable show how not closing the accountability gap means a widening of the digital divide between who has the capabilities in place to react to cyberattacks, and who does not. Insofar, one framework to address the issue of accountability is to enact globally recognized norms and regulations. But this top down approach shows its limitations when confronted with the technical construct of cyberspace and with the fact that nowadays neither norms nor regulations constitute law in the cyberspace. Therefore, a new capability for accountability needs to be built whilst taking into consideration multiple facets: strengthen the top down approach for the international community to design an overarching framework, and develop a bottom-up approach where grassroots practitioners propose actionable accountability measures on the basis of the technical characteristics of cyberspace and the socio-economic consequences, and, ultimately the cost of human lives of cyberattacks. The CyberPeace Institute is adopting and combining a top-down and bottom-up approach through its series of CyberPeace Labs, titled “Infodemic: A Threat to Cyberpeace”, where the Institute has gathered experts from academia, international organizations, civil society, private sector and government bodies in order to investigate how malicious actors are exploiting the COVID-19 crisis for launching cyber operations. Targeted attacks against hospitals, health agencies, testing and research centers during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrate the pressing necessity to promote an actionable and evidence-led accountability framework, that links attacks with consequences and allows to compare analytics and evidence of attacks with the views, practices and pledges of the international community. In the format of a break-out group discussion: - The CyberPeace Institute will propose an evidence-led accountability framework as a tangible solution for achieving greater accountability, including for attribution of malicious cyber activities. After a brief presentation of the framework by the CyberPeace Institute, in a tour de table the 3 speakers will present their views on the topic of closing the accountability gap in cyberspace, setting the stage for the break-out group discussion (30 minutes). - The CyberPeace Institute will ask to the audience to discuss in groups potential challenges and opportunities to build such framework (40 minutes). - With the help of the speakers as moderator, the discussion within the different groups will be focused on identifying challenges and good practices related to the following questions: o How to assist targeted civilian populations in a scalable and sustainable way, when there is such an asymmetry in the capabilities of attackers and defenders? o How to ensure accountability, when malicious actors are operating in a culture of obfuscation, benefiting from a technical landscape which evolves at an exponential pace (i.e. AI, 5G)? o How to develop collective analysis, research, and investigations of sophisticated cyberattacks in such a complex technical context (i.e. heterogeneous big data flows, barriers to information sharing)? o How to create incentive for states to operationalize norms? How to enforce consequences when norms are violated? - The groups will gather together to present the highlights of their discussions, outlining what they believe are the best practices to enforce a framework for accountability (20 minutes). From this break-out session, the CyberPeace Institute will draft a set of actionable recommendations to implement a credible evidence-led framework for collective analysis and strengthen the process to accountability. The Institute’s commitment stems from the belief that the cyberspace is a common good, and how malicious actors abuse it should be public knowledge.