Cyber War Talks Heat Up at UN With Russia at Table
United Nations diplomats who are meeting this week to set ground rules and guidelines for how states interact in cyber space had choice words for Russia, the country that willed the working group into existence.
“Russia has made a mockery of its pretension to lead on cyberissues at the United Nations,” Michele Markoff, U.S. lead on cyber matters at the meeting. She said Russia had attacked Ukrainian banks, government websites and private sector entities as part of its invasion in a way “designed to affect the civilian population.”
Canada’s representative, Dan McBryde, said it was “surreal” that Russia was undermining the very guidelines on state use of cyber tools that Moscow had helped birth, while the U.K.’s Kathryn Jones listed previous cyberattacks by Russia on Ukraine.
The meeting was for a UN entity known as the open-ended working group for security and the use of information and communications technologies. Its task has always always been a challenge: corralling the world’s countries to ward off the accelerating threat of global cyber war.
But this week it’s happening in the midst of Russia’s bloody invasion of Ukraine, when both sides are lobbing digital attacks at one another, and the U.S. is warning about retaliatory hacks from Russia.
To complicate matters further, Russia led the creation of the working group and pushed the UN to create standards in cyber space.
“All of these accusations are completely unfounded,” said Vladimir Shin, Russia’s representative at the meeting, alleging the U.S. and “cyber mercenaries” were instead launching cyberattacks against Russia. He claimed he spoke for “the silent majority” in opposing what he said was a group of Western states trying to block the format and work of the
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