A/66/152 That task will not be easy. The international community faces the challenge of maintaining an environment that promotes efficiency, innovation, economic prosperity and free trade while also promoting safety, security, civil liberties and privacy rights. The difficulty of the task is compounded by the unique attributes of information and communications technologies. Accessible to all, networks are often owned and operated by the private sector, rather than by Governments. Unlike traditional weapons, disruptive information technology tools are stealthy and cannot be seen. Their use can be routed through many nations, with the origin, identity and sponsorship of the perpetrator difficult to determine. Increasingly, non-State actors are developing capabilities that raise the possibility of States or non-State actors using proxies to engage in disruptive activities in cyberspace. These attributes make traditional strategies, such as measures similar to those used for arms control, ineffective in controlling or constraining threat actors and therefore, creative new approaches are required to mitigate the risks. Notwithstanding the difficulty of the task, Member States must unite in the common goal of preserving and enhancing the contribution that information technologies make by assuring their security and integrity. The tasks of Member States are twofold: domestic and international. Securing national information infrastructures is a responsibility Governments must lead on domestically, in coordination with relevant civil society stakeholders. At the same time, domestic efforts should be supported by international collaboration on strategies that address the transnational nature of the various threats to networked information systems. These efforts should include cooperation on incident management, mitigation and response; transnational criminal investigation and prosecution; technical recommendations to improve the robustness of cyberinfrastructure; and affirmation of internationally shared norms of behaviour supported by confidence-building measures designed to enhance stability and reduce risks of misperception. II. Threats, risks, vulnerabilities Threats to the network of systems that together constitute cyberspace, and the information that travels over them, is one of the serious global challenges of the twenty-first century. State and non-State actors can target ordinary citizens, commerce, critical industrial infrastructures and Governments through information and communications technologies. The convergence between information and communications technologies, the Internet and other infrastructures creates unprecedented opportunities to cripple telecommunications, electrical power, pipelines and refineries, financial networks and other critical infrastructures. The unique characteristics of information technology facilitate its use for disruptive activities and severely challenge Governments that seek to reduce risk. Unlike traditional military technologies, the networks that constitute cyberspace are not the monopoly of Governments, but are in many cases owned and operated by the private sector. Information technology itself is a widely available technology that is neither inherently civil nor military in nature, where its use depends exclusively on the motivation of the user. Software tools used for disruption, at least in their basics, are freely available to all. More sophisticated approaches can be developed by anyone with the requisite skill. Moreover, these tools evolve rapidly to take advantage of newly discovered 11-41691 15