UN SECURITY COUNCIL OPEN DEBATE ON CYBER SECURITY – MAINTENANCE OF INTERNATIONAL PEACE AND SECURITY: ADDRESSING EVOLVING THREATS IN CYBERSPACE
20 June 2024
Statement by H.E Ambassador James Larsen, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Australia, on behalf of Canada, Australia and New Zealand (CANZ).
Thank you very much President, and may I thank the Republic of Korea for bringing us together.
I am glad to speak on behalf of Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
Cyber threats undermine the transformative opportunities of digital technologies. They are increasing in scale and sophistication and pose particular challenges when employed in connection with armed conflicts.
Services that all of us – as citizens and consumers – rely on everyday also mean that cyber incidents against critical infrastructure can have devastating and cascading impacts across society. They serve as a ‘threat multiplier’ to existing risks and can threaten at the most basic and fundamental levels, the effective functioning of public trust in government.
Around the world, we’ve seen significant cyber incidents take down critical infrastructure and disrupt essential services and government operations.
In Australia, a ransomware incident on the healthcare sector exposed the personal information of millions of individuals.
In Canada, a ransomware incident paralysed the systems of provincial healthcare providers, which caused serious delays and imperilled sensitive information pertaining to thousands of staff and patients.
In New Zealand, the proportion of financially-motivated cyber activity has exceeded state-sponsored activity for the first time.
In ongoing situations of armed conflict, we have seen military cyber operators deploying destructive malware against government and private sector networks and compromising civilian critical infrastructure and entities involved in crisis response – including emergency services, energy, transport and communications networks.
We also see a clear link between the use of ransomware tools to perpetrate financial crime, including cryptocurrency theft, to directly fund nuclear and WMD programs aimed at undermining our efforts towards global stability and disarmament.
The Security Council has a crucial role to play in preventing this. We welcome opportunities such as this one to discuss cyber threats, which help mainstream these issues within Security Council discussions, raise their profile, and bring in the expertise of the multistakeholder community, including civil society organisations.
Collectively, we have sent an unambiguous message that all States’ activities in cyberspace have limitations and are subject to obligations, just as they are in the physical domain.
All Members of the UN have agreed, by consensus, that existing international law – in particular the UN Charter in its entirety – applies in cyberspace.
States must be unequivocal in their commitment to act in accordance with international law, and with the expectations set out by the agreed non-binding norms.
In conclusion, we have two key asks. First, we ask the Security Council to affirm the agreed framework of responsible state behaviour which underpins peace and stability and promotes an open, secure, stable, accessible and peaceful cyberspace. Achieving these key objectives requires implementation and adherence to related commitments, supported by coordinated capacity-building to support all states in increasing their ability to respond to the challenges posed.
Second, we also call on the Security Council to affirm that international humanitarian law applies to cyberspace in situations of armed conflict.
Such affirmations reinforce our collective commitments to protect critical infrastructure, and to bolster international law, in particular the UN Charter.
Thank you.