have confidence in the
security of ICT
products. States should
seek to prevent the
proliferation of
malicious ICT tools and
techniques and the use
of harmful hidden
functions;
Cyber Policy
Centre
Global
Partners
Digital
-
States conduct a national telecommunications supply chain review, like the UK
in 2019
-
States introduce an IT security certification scheme like the UK’s Cyber
Essentials; and States’ participation in international arrangements for mutual
recognition of certified products and service, like the Common Criteria initiative
-
States’ prohibiting the deliberate introduction of systemic
weaknesses/vulnerabilities in ICT products; and States combating black markets
in ICT products.
-
States’ participation in the Wassenaar Arrangement on the transparency of
dual-use goods and technologies
-
States have national bodies technically able and mandated to advice, assess and
certify industry products and consumer goods, like a national cybersecurity
centre, universities of national scientific organisations.
-
States’ emerging practice of considering ICT products and services as critical
national (security) infrastructure, like the decisions of various States in regard to
5G infrastructure providers or cybersecurity service providers.
-
States’ ability to access Industry transparency centres, like Huawei’s centre in
the UK, Microsoft’s in Singapore, and Kaspersky’s in Switzerland.
Ensuring the integrity of the supply chain requires that states refrain from
mandating backdoor access to ICT products (hardware and software) and in popular
communication platforms. Additionally, this norm is about preventing the
proliferation of malicious ICTs and techniques.xliii Malware and software
vulnerabilities which are used to target HRDs have been disseminated through app
stores and software updates. As mentioned above in relation to norm (a), it is crucial
for the peace and stability of cyberspace that states promote measures which
increase the stability and security of ICTs. This requires measures which protect,
instead of weaken, strong encryption as weak encryption can introduce
vulnerabilities into the supply chain, and contribute to the proliferation of malicious
ICT tools and techniques. States should support privacy by design in the supply chain
including via multistakeholder initiatives such as the Online Trust Alliance to develop
and advance best practices to protect users’ security, privacy, and identity.xliv
Other steps states can take to support supply chain integrity include the
conduct of human rights impact assessmentsxlv and the inclusion of supply chain
security and steps taken to mitigate against the proliferation of malicious ICT tools
and techniques in National Action Plans (NAPs).xlvi
ICRC &
Australian
Red Cross
Those who develop cyber capabilities should consider creating obstacles to
make repurposing difficult and expensive. While it is hardly possible from a technical
standpoint to guarantee that malware cannot be repurposed, methods like
encrypting its payload and including obstacles in different components of the code,
for example, could raise the bar in terms of the expertise required to reengineer
malicious tools.xlvii
Kaspersky
Supply chain attacks remain the most destructive and difficult to prevent.
Therefore, for the implementation of this norm is crucial to develop frameworks for
technical and institutional evaluation of the trustworthiness of supply chain vendors.
From the vendor side, it is important to ensure the integrity of the supply chain
through the publicly communicated policies and practices. Our Global Transparency
Initiativexlviii (GTI) as a set of practical measures to increase transparency and
accountability in cybersecurity could be a guiding example for the private sector.
Practically speaking, the GTI includes framework to build trust and confidence
of users in cybersecurity:
-
Data Care: relocation of data processing and data storage to Switzerland – a
state with long famous neutrality and strict data protection regulation;
-
Dedicated Transparency Centersxlix for accessing Kaspersky’s source code,
software updates and threat detection rules, along with other activities, for
external review. There we also provide access to review types of information
@DFAT DFAT.GOV.AU
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