Modern cyberspace vital for development and democracy | Sunday Observer

Modern cyberspace vital for development and democracy

24 March, 2019

At the launch of the “Cyber Resilience for Development” project, British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka James Dauris highlighted the importance of an open, free, secure and resilient cyberspace in safeguarding democracy and furthering development. He explained that this vision aligns with the UK’s own National Cyber Security Strategy. The British, Dutch and Estonian Governments are implementing partners in this European Union funded project,in collaboration with the Ministry of Digital Infrastructure and Information Technology.

The High Commissioner focused on the following issues:

Thirty years ago, in March 1989 British engineer Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web and its development alongside that of the internet brought profound transformation to the whole world, giving billions access to knowledge and the exchange of ideas, as well as nurturing innovation and investment.

As with many new technologies in their times, it has brought challenges. If not managed carefully these challenges are ones that could undermine the benefits of cyberspace and pose a serious threat to realising its full potential. According to a report by tech giant McAffee, the global cost of cybercrime in 2017 was $600 billion, or almost one per cent of the global GDP.

With the internet and ICT now well established features of modern life, safety and security in the cyber-sphere are of the highest importance. A cyber-attack by malign actors can disrupt the lives of our citizens by undermining our financial systems and crippling critical national infrastructure .

The WannaCry cyber-attack in May 2017 – which affected 150 countries - showed just how real such cyber threats are.

The British Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, recently said in his speech ‘Deterrence in the Cyber Age’, recent cyber threats have been designed with the intention of undermining democracy. The implications of this should be profoundly disturbing to democratic states like ours and all across the world. Throughout 2018, the British Government exposed a series of reckless cyber-attacks in multiple nations. Consequently, EU leaders have agreed to create a new sanctions regime to punish malicious action in cyber space.

UK is a global leader on cyber and is one of the safest places to do business online. We are keen to share our experience and what we have learned with partners such as Sri Lanka.

Together with our allies we have improved our collective ability to detect malicious actions in cyberspace. The National Cyber Security Centre is doing excellent work.

To be effective our approach needs to be multi-faceted. We need to be working with allies on joint strategies and future steps, ones that are consistent with domestic and international law.

The UK believes that we are most likely to succeed in preserving a free, open, peaceful and secure cyberspace, if the international community works closely together to foster networks for cyber cooperation and expertise.

Last year we were pleased to share experience with Sri Lanka CERT as Sri Lanka developed its National Information Cyber Security Strategy 2019-2023. Next month we will welcome a delegation of Sri Lankan officials to our National Cyber Security Centre’s flagship CyberUK conference.

I know from this cooperation that all of these issues matter to Sri Lanka as well as the UK. This country’s future economic prosperity and social well-being will increasingly depend on the openness and security of its cyber networks and the ways in which they link to networks beyond its borders. These issues will likely become more evident as a significant proportion of the next billion users to come online will live in South Asia.

Sri Lanka has already shown clear support to this through its national cyber strategy and through signing the Commonwealth Cyber Declaration, agreed in London last year.

Britain and other democracies need to take a strategic and practical approach to safeguarding the free institutions and economies at the heart of our way of life. The UK believes we will be better placed working together through international cooperation to achieve this.

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