India in US-Russia rivalry over cybersecurity

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 11

After Moscow emerged as a dependable ally during India’s tensions with China, all eyes are now on the United Nations to anticipate New Delhi’s stand on responding to cyber-attacks.

Given the current tensions with China, India’s natural reflex would be to ally with the US cyberspace strategy that advocates use of force when faced with debilitating cyber-attacks.

The lawful response of nations to cyber-attacks in self-defence is today one of the most heavily debated issues in international law.

Already Russia and the US are ranged against each other with two competing proposals before two separate bodies. Interestingly, UN member states approved both the Russia approved OEWG (open ended working group) and US backed Governmental Group on Experts.

The issue at stake is when will a cyber-attack lead to war against the alleged perpetrator? There have been several incidents of a grave provocative nature such as the targeting of an Indian nuclear plant, Stuxnet and Russian cyber-activity during the last US Presidential polls.

While all nations share the expectations of responsible online behaviour, they differ on who should define the conditions under which a state can take aggressive action against the perpetrator of an on-line attack.

At this juncture, while the US wants to retain the right to respond as it wishes to cyber-attacks, this is not an opinion shared by the other big powers Russia and China which want the UN to be in the centre of the picture, even if the process of deliberations is time-consuming.

The biggest difficulty that states face when a cyber-attack is in progress is to find out who is the actual instigator. This problem makes nations hesitant to respond to cyber-attacks in self-defence as they fear violating the law of war.

The fear is that in the absence of an international treaty, a nation under an aggressive or a domestically cornered leader may arbitrarily equate a cyber-attack with a traditional armed attack and respond by war.

With the situation in a flux, it remains to be seen how India can influence opinion towards UN-mandated criteria for responding to a cyber-attack despite US impatience with first fleshing out the criteria in terms if severity, immediacy, directness, invasiveness, measurability and presumptive legitimacy.

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