A/68/98 Letter of transmittal 7 June 2013 I have the honour to submit herewith the report of the Group of Governmental Experts on Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security. The Group was appointed in 2012 pursuant to paragraph 4 of General Assembly resolution 66/24. As Chair of the Group, I am pleased to inform you that consensus was reached on the report. In its resolution, “Developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security”, the General Assembly requested that a group of governmental experts be established in 2012, on the basis of equitable geographical distribution, to continue to study existing and potential threats in the sphere of information security and possible cooperative measures to address them including norms, rules or principles of responsible behaviour of States and confidence-building measures with regard to information space, as well as the concepts aimed at strengthening the security of global information and telecommunications systems. The Group was also asked to take into account the assessments and recommendations of a previous group (A/65/201). The SecretaryGeneral was requested to submit a report on the results of the study to the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session. In accordance with the terms of the resolution, experts were appointed from 15 States: Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Canada, China, Egypt, Estonia, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America. The list of experts is contained in the annex. The Group of Governmental Experts had a comprehensive, in-depth exchange of views on developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security. The Group met in three sessions: the first from 6 to 10 August 2012 at United Nations Headquarters; the second from 14 to 18 January 2013 at Geneva; the third from 3 to 7 June 2013 at United Nations Headquarters. The Group wishes to express appreciation for the contribution of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, which served as consultant to the Group, and which was represented by James Lewis, Kerstin Vignard (second and third sessions) and Ben Baseley-Walker (first session). The Group also wishes to express appreciation to Ewen Buchanan of the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, who served as Secretary of the Group, and to other Secretariat officials who assisted the Group. (Signed) Deborah Stokes Chair of the Group 13-37166 5