A special report from 
| With support from 
Madeleine Albright, Tim Berners-Lee, Brad Smith and other leading thinkers on creating an international framework for peace, security and cooperation in the cyber world
A special report from | With support from
As cyberspace has become the modern domain of human productivity, it has also become a place of conflict and risk. Cyberattacks increasingly threaten key infrastructure, and the damage can be catastrophic. Our essayists explain why a new domain demands new rules to ensure responsible behavior in cyberspace.
This is a time in human history unlike any other. As the world proceeds through this period of digital transformation, we are rapidly uncovering the potential for technology to improve lives and address some of humanity’s greatest challenges. This has been especially apparent over the … read more
In this exchange, Peter Maurer and Brad Smith discuss how digital technologies can help respond to humanitarian crisis and how international law can help safeguard cyberspace.In a world where authoritarian countries use cyber weapons to undermine the world’s democracies and human rights, it’s imperative that the international … read more
“If a critical pipeline is not secured against ransomware, how can we expect to reliably verify that an adversary is not prepositioned on that pipeline for future attack? In this geo-strategic environment “trust me” does not cut it.”
The 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly comes at a moment of dramatic change, not only in the international system but in basic conceptions of security. The COVID-19 pandemic showed how an invisible virus can cause massive human suffering and global dislocation. It also … read more
Over the past years, concerns that cyberspace will be used as an arena for full-blown conflict have mounted as the scale and pervasiveness of cyber incidents increase. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that the growing frequency and severity of cyberattacks are undermining … read more
We are witnessing the normalization of global cyber insecurity. In the last few months, cybercriminals have used ransomware to disrupt the largest U.S. oil pipeline for six days, strike a global meat supplier and disrupt Ireland’s national … read more
Today, technology and digitally enabled services are fundamental for businesses to operate and to provide the capabilities so many of us rely upon in our daily lives. Moreover, technology and data are critical components for addressing major global issues, such … read more
The misuse of offensive cyber capabilities infringes fundamental human rights, including privacy and freedom of expression, and threatens peace and human security by exposing individuals to persecution.
Five years ago, computer scientist Hao Li in an optimistic TedX talk praised the limitless potential of computer-generated videos that replicate humans onscreen. Four years later, Li struck a more ominous tone at the World Economic Forum in … read more
Would-be hackers — especially those backed by or working for adversarial countries — are learning how to amplify their attacks through machine-learning and artificial intelligence (AI). Backdoor poisoning attacks are on the rise as cybercriminals inject contaminated information into the … read more
As digital connectivity grows, so does the global attack surface. This special report from FP Analytics highlights the escalation of state-sponsored cyberattacks and the urgent need for collective action to mitigate the mounting costs of cyberattacks and risks to human security.
An effective global strategy for a rules-based order in cyberspace must ensure digital peace and security for everyone, but the path is not an easy one. In Part Two, our thought leaders explore ways to surmount these geo-political roadblocks.
Ensuring that countries behave responsibly in cyberspace demands that we rethink how we, as an international community, write our rules and resolve our disputes. We cannot simply hammer out a peace treaty by convening heads of state around a mahogany table to draw lines on … read more
The future of the cyber landscape looks pretty bleak. The past two decades have seen the proliferation of offensive tools and operations in cyberspace by state and nonstate actors. Organized criminals divert widely used technologies for profit and disruptive attacks. Cyber arms, offensive tools and … read more
The world is in a competition for the best approach to harness technology and the digital economy. In particular, geopolitical competition between the United States and China and the prospect of what former CIA operations director Paul R. Kolbe called “an age of perpetual … read more
Over the past year, cybersecurity incidents have again dominated global headlines, much like 2017 when the world faced the massive WannaCry and NotPetya attacks. Indeed, the current age of state-sponsored cyberattacks dates as far back as the Moonlight Maze incident in 1996, which involved … read more
Spreading false information to cause serious harm is not new. What is new is that digital technology has enabled pathways for false or manipulated information to be created, disseminated and amplified at a speed, scale and reach never known before.
Among the up-and-coming female cyber diplomats from emerging economies who attended the most recent round of the United Nations Open-Ended Working Group dialogue, Thailand’s Vowpailin Chovichien brought a resume that hardly fit the usual international relations mold. She has held … read more
During her first trips to New York City as part of South Africa’s permanent mission to the United Nations, Moliehi Makumane dreaded lunchtime. She spent her mornings in meetings at the UN headquarters building where older white men made up … read more
When Mila Francisco first entered the diplomatic corps in her native Chile in 2005, she didn’t feel like she was breaking any glass ceilings. At the time, women accounted for about half the people graduating from the Diplomatic Academy of … read more
Tupoutua’h Baravilala manages Fiji’s government information technology network, oversees islanders’ digital connections to one another and the outside world, and represents her country at high-level international conferences on cybersecurity. All at age 32. As acting permanent secretary for communications in … read more
Four years ago, it would have been unthinkable to say politicians and their supporters would be working off the same playbook as foreign adversaries with the goal of discrediting our democracy. Unfortunately, this is where we find ourselves today.
When I invented the World Wide Web, I imagined a universal, open space for people to connect, collaborate and learn, unconstrained by the national borders that divide the physical world. Fast forward 32 years, and, as governments adopt laws and regulations to meet the changes … read more
We live in a polarized world in which political and ideological divisions directly affect the digital ecosystem, cybersecurity, and behavior of different actors in cyberspace. Some countries benefit from the advantages made possible by the digital revolution and take seriously the challenges that come with … read more
We are seeing an increase in conflict online coupled with flaring geopolitical tensions that endanger citizens, organizations and countries connected to the internet.
The Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace sets out nine common principles (below) to promote responsible behavior for a secure and peaceful cyberspace. In 2020, the government of Canada, Microsoft and the Alliance for Securing Democracy committed to help implement the Paris Call’s … read more
Thank you for taking the time to engage with this special publication. I hope it has been illuminating and provoked some new thinking about how we might work together to promote peace, security and human rights in our digital world. These are the qualities that … read more
FP Analytics and Microsoft have convened the world’s foremost authorities on cybersecurity and geo-politics to assess and explain how the international community can achieve cooperation, peace and security in cyberspace.
