Finally, we encourage governments to participate in regional initiatives that aim
to develop and implement confidence building measures, such as the work of the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Similarly, bilateral initiatives
that aim to build trust between partners in cyberspace should be welcomed.
(b) In case of ICT
incidents, States should
consider all relevant
information, including
the larger context of
the event, the
challenges of
attribution in the ICT
environment and the
nature and extent of
the consequences;
Australian
Strategic
Policy
Institute,
International
Cyber Policy
Centre
Global
Partners
Digital
Implementation of norms are demonstrated by states’ actions, capabilities, and
strategic policy direction. As this norm deals with means and methods to consider all
relevant information in case of attributing an ICT incident, examples of
implementation include:
-
States’ practice of publishing regular cyber threat reports like Australia’s Cyber
Threat Report, Singapore’s Cyber Landscape, Indonesia’s HoneyNet project and
The Netherlands’ Cybersecurity Security Assessment.
-
States’ use of frameworks like the UK’s incident categorisation framework,
Australia’s governance framework for federal cyber crisis management, the US’
impact assessment framework, and Singapore’s response with a Commission of
Inquiry following the SingHealth data breach
-
States’ ability to follow a whole-of-government approach in reaching an
informed position on an incident, i.e. having a process in place that links
technical forensics with broader policy considerations.
-
States’ ability to mobilise and deploy a variety of sources of national power
across the spectrum of crisis response (prevention, diplomacy, incident
management, and recovery), like the EU’s Cyber Diplomacy Toolbox
-
States declaring policies and positions on attribution, like whether attributions
will be made, publicly or privately, and how States will apply international law.
Although there is currently little available ‘best practice’ with regards to this
norm, attribution in cyberspace is a multidimensional activity and therefore requires
interdisciplinary research and multistakeholder engagement. Efforts in this regard,
which engage all stakeholders including the technical community and civil society,
should be supported.
The escalation of tensions between states can harm human rights by leading to
increased cyber attacks, which can reduce access to essential services and
compromise the integrity of sensitive and personal data.x However, attribution in
cyberspace is also contested, and processes which occur before public attribution by
governments lack transparency, partly due to a reluctance to reveal methods.xi This
contributes to uncertainty, supports deniability and can therefore make deterrence
difficult. As a result, independent and trust-building attribution efforts are required.
Institute for
International
Cyber
Stability
States should establish a clearing house type of information sharing center
(fusion center) where the information from all stakeholders (cybersecurity firms,
intelligence agencies, other government agencies with authorities to collect and
analyse this type of data, civil society, academics) can be collected and analysed at
the unclassified level. As states create such a center for national information sharing
the government leaders can use this analyse to become more informed about ALL
the relevant information in making attribution decisions.
Kaspersky
To overcome the lack of attribution or misattribution which can lead to
escalation of tensions between states, it is necessary to develop transparent and
trusted platforms for exchange of threat information between private actors and
government agencies, including CERTs.
As an example of the private sector’s approach, Kaspersky developed its Threat
Intelligence Portalxii to provide access to technical descriptions of the very latest
threats during an ongoing investigation; insight into non-public investigations;
detailed supporting technical data and access to our YARA rules; continuous
campaign monitoring; and access to actionable intelligence during an investigation
(information on campaign distribution, IOCs, C&C infrastructure). As a support to
cyber capacity building in the fight against cybercrime, we provide freemuim access
to the Portal within our free package for Law Enforcement Agencies.xiii
@DFAT DFAT.GOV.AU
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