BENGALURU: There has been an estimated loss of $6 trillion in cyber crime in the first nine months of this year. The fact that cyber attacks are happening at a regular frequency tell us that something is wrong somewhere, said Lt General Rajesh Pant (Retd), national cybersecurity coordinator, Government of India.
He was speaking on ‘Solarium 2020, US Cyber Security in a Changing World Order’ on Friday, in a virtual forum organised by the Synergia Foundation, a Bengaluru-based strategic think tank.
Pant along with two other panelists -- Robert Morgues, senior director, US Cyber Space Solarium Commission Task Force 2 and Laura Bate, senior director, US Cyber Space Solarium Commission Task Force 3, said that international norms, robust bilateral relations and public-private partnership (PPP) are crucial to the stability of cyberspace.
Morgues spoke on the role of international resilience, PPP and uniform international norms for protecting digital privacy and creating a safe digital environment. Ruling out monopoly or a single nation leading the pack in the global Internet regime, he said there would be multiple leaders with nation states determining cyber protocols with private players.
Pant concurred with Morgues and stressed upon the importance of international cooperation between nations. “We need an international body like the United Nations for cyber security and international court of justice for cybercrimes. Criminals are taking advantage of the politics and infighting among countries on uniform cyber laws and lack of cyber diplomacy,” said Pant.
India follows the rule of Common But Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR) where everyone is responsible for cyber security, he added. Bates stressed upon the importance of international collaboration, free flow of information sharing between democracies like the US and India and increased use of direct bilateral communication to promote a healthy cyber ecosystem.