Security News > 2021 > June > UK tells UN that nation-states should retaliate against cyber badness with no warning

Britain has told the UN that international cyber law should allow zero-notice digital punishment directed at countries that attack others' infrastructure.

A statement made by UK diplomats to the UN's Group of Governmental Experts on Advancing Responsible State Behaviour in the Context of International Security called for international law to permit retaliation for cyber attacks with no notice.

"The UK does not consider that States taking countermeasures are legally obliged to give prior notice in all circumstances," said the British submission to the UN GGE, made in advance of the G7 heads of government meeting in Cornwall this week.

Government and policy sources have previously told The Register that UK policy is aimed at building international consensus around cyber norms, making it easier to confront Russia, China, Iran, and similar cyber-rogues.

Back in 2019 Hunt had said the UK should be "More emphatic about what we consider to be unacceptable behaviour and the consequences for any breach of international law" while tempering that with warnings about normalising international hacking, but under current foreign secretary Dominic Raab it appears UK policy officials are less worried about inflaming international tensions.

Support for increasing weaponisation of cyberspace from prominent UK figures has been lukewarm: last year ex-NCSC chief Ciaran Martin raised the notion that policy makers were "Oddly deferential and therefore unquestioning" when presented with the weapon-like capabilities of the NCF. "Prior notice may not be a legal obligation when responding to covert cyber intrusion with countermeasures or when resort is had to countermeasures which themselves depend on covert cyber capabilities." .

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2021/06/11/uk_ungge_cyber_norms_submission/