Internet "rules of the road" urged at London conference

Nov 1, 2011, 16:23 GMT

London - The scope for 'malignant activity' on the internet will grow alongside its many advantages, requiring urgent action to agree rules of behaviour for cyberspace, an international conference in London was warned Tuesday.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague told participants that the current 'cyber free-for-all' threatened to swamp the internet with rising levels of online crime and state-sponsored cyber attacks.

It should, therefore, be protected by online 'rules of the road' which would guarantee the vast benefits of the digital age for all, Hague told a conference on the risks and opportunities of the internet.

'We have pushed the bounds of ingenuity and discovery to develop incredibly versatile technologies ... with the prospect of further yet-undreamt of innovations still to come,' Hague said.

'If we want a future in which the benefits of the digital age are expanded to all peoples and economies of the world, and the risks minimised as much as possible, we need to act to achieve that,' he added.

The two-day conference, attended by representatives of 60 nations, will seek to formulate measures for a better protection against the abuse of the internet through so-called cybercrime.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had been due to attend, but cancelled the trip at short notice for family reasons. Hague said that US Vice-President Joe Biden would attend in her place. China and Russia are among the countries represented at the conference.

While many of the countries at the conference would have 'different views,' the reasons to cooperate were 'far more compelling' than the issues dividing participants, said Hague.

'The truth is that in cyberspace, no one country can go it alone,' he said.

The simple idea behind better protection of the internet was the principle that 'behaviour that is unacceptable offline is also unacceptable online,' said Hague.

'The internet is not separate from society; it is part of society and mirrors society. The best and worst of human behaviour find expression online.'

Hague described free and uncensored access to the internet as a human right with which governments should only interfere with in exceptional situations.

The internet was helping to make governments more transparent and accountable to people, while social media networks had 'reduced the distance between politicians and citizens to a dramatic and hugely positive degree,' he said.

However, there were also 'real threats to freedom of expression on the internet' in countries where it was used to 'repress or to round up political opponents' and to persecute them.

'The idea of freedom cannot be contained behind bars, no matter how strong the lock. Human rights are universal, and apply online as much as they do offline.'

With cyber-crime growing 'exponentially' across the globe, the challenge of building a consensus needed to be pursued with 'the same intensity as efforts to eradicate global poverty or tackle climate change,' Hague said.

'As all our societies become more wired-up and technologies converge, the scope for malignant activity will widen alongside the many advantages,' he said.

Hague painted a bleak picture of the consequences for governments, businesses and individuals if countries failed to agree a common way forward.

While the private sector would face the rising costs to business from cyber crime, governments faced threats to critical infrastructure, the loss of tax revenue, the defrauding of government services, the theft of confidential national information and vulnerability to attacks in cyberspace.

'If these scenarios come to pass, they will undermine the wider benefits of our networked world,' said Hague.

He announced that Hungary and South Korea would host follow-on conferences on the topic in 2012 and 2013 respectively.