Congressmen from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) urged the administration to begin the process of clarifying international law around cyberwarfare and cyberattacks Thursday.
Reps. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.), chairman of the subcommittee on NSA and cybersecurity, and Jim Hines (D-Ct), ranking member of the subcommittee, sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry and National Security Advisor Susan Rice, asking them to begin a process similar to the four Geneva Conventions, but on cyber issues.
The lawmakers analogized that the current state of cyber capabilities are similar to past periods when rules of war were codified. They noted the four Geneva Conventions (1864, 106, 1929, and 1949) were established to govern specific conduct during war and the United Nations Charter of 1945 was formed to suppression aggression and block unjustified resort to force.
They also highlighted non-proliferation agreements during the second half of the 20th century as examples, negotiated to curtail the exponential growth of nuclear weapons.
The authors noted that now 29 countries are dedicating military and intelligence units to cyber warfare and experts warn of the danger of a “Cyber Pearl Harbor.” Therefore “the U.S. should lead the international community to create clear definitions, norms and enforceable guidelines in this developing arena.”
“Now is the time for the international community to seriously respond again with a binding set of international rules for cyberwarfare: an E-Neva Convention,” the letter said.
Westmoreland and Hines highlighted initial steps in this direction: that the the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts on Information Security reaffirmed a nonbinding consensus among 20 nations in July that international law, including the United Nations Charter, apply to cyberspace; peacetime norms agreed to among the 20 nations as well, including critical infrastructure protection; and President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s bilateral agreement regulating cyber activities, focused on cyber theft of intellectual property.
“We applaud these achievements. International agreement on any matter, particularly with our geopolitical rivals, is difficult, and the United States has shown leadership in these efforts,” the letter said.
Although an international cyber agreement will not stop all cyber bad behavior and warfare, “It is in the best interest of all nations, however, to establish comprehensive, official norms for cyberspace,” the congressmen said.