The London Process is a series of multistakeholder meetings held biennially since 2011 under the name Global Conference on Cyberspace or GCCS. In each GCCS meeting, governments, the private sector and civil society gather to discuss and promote practical cooperation in cyberspace, to enhance cyber capacity building, and to discuss norms for responsible behavior in cyberspace. [1] [2] The London Process was proposed by British Foreign Secretary William Hague at the 2011 Munich Security Conference. [3]
The first GCCS conference was held in London on November 23rd-24th 2011, under the auspices of the British Foreign Office. The location of the first meeting inspired the name "London Process" for the series of meetings which followed. At this first meeting a set of principles “for governing behavior in cyberspace” were established through discussion amongst the 700 participants. [1]
The second GCCS conference was held on October 4-5th, 2012 in Budapest. The main subject and focus that has been discussed was the relationship between internet rights and internet security. Even though very few civil society organisations were invited to speak, the networking was valuable, and had more longer term impact than the Chair’s statement which represents the outcome of the event.
The third event held on 17–18 October 2013 in Seoul. The conference had grown to approximately 1,600 attendees with greater representation from countries in the global south. The principle outcome of the third GCCS was the Seoul Framework for and Commitment to Open and Secure Cyberspace, which highlights the importance of universal Internet access, emphasizes that the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, and reinforces a UN principle that international law is applicable online and is essential to maintaining peace and stability and promoting an open, secure, peaceful and accessible ICT environment. [4]
The fourth GCCS conference was held at the World Forum from 16 to 17 April 2015 in The Hague, under the auspices of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. [2] [1]
The fifth GCCS conference held from 23 to 24 November 2017 in New Delhi, India, and had 3,500 participants. [1] [5] Theme of GCCS 2017 is “Cyber4All: A Secure and Inclusive Cyberspace for Sustainable Development”. However it could further be divided into following four sections: Cyber4Growth – share ideas and insights to foster growth and development with growing importance of the cyber space to individuals, small businesses, large companies etc. Cyber4DigitalInclusion –draw road map for inclusive . society by sharing best practices for digital identity, idea of open and free Internet for all, digital technologies for enabling differently abled etc. Cyber4Security –framework for comprehensive cyber. security protocols for organisations and nations.
Cyber4Diplomacy –explore various facets of cyber security . such as interstate cooperation for preventing Cyber Warfare and Cyber Diplomacy for Global Order.
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was a two-phase United Nations-sponsored summit on information, communication and, in broad terms, the information society that took place in 2003 in Geneva and in 2005 in Tunis. One of its chief aims was to bridge the global digital divide separating rich countries from poor countries by increasing internet accessibility in the developing world. The conferences established 17 May as World Information Society Day.
The United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force was a multi-stakeholder initiative associated with the United Nations which is "intended to lend a truly global dimension to the multitude of efforts to bridge the global digital divide, foster digital opportunity and thus firmly put ICT at the service of development for all".
The Munich Security Conference is an annual conference on international security policy that has been held in Munich, Bavaria, Germany since 1963. Former names are Wehrkundetagung and Münchner Konferenz für Sicherheitspolitik. It is the world's largest gathering of its kind.
Internet governance is the development and application of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programs that shape the evolution and use of the Internet. This article describes how the Internet was and is currently governed, some of the controversies that occurred along the way, and the ongoing debates about how the Internet should or should not be governed in the future.
The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is a multistakeholder governance group for policy dialogue on issues of Internet governance. It brings together all stakeholders in the Internet governance debate, whether they represent governments, the private sector or civil society, including the technical and academic community, on an equal basis and through an open and inclusive process. The establishment of the IGF was formally announced by the United Nations Secretary-General in July 2006. It was first convened in October–November 2006 and has held an annual meeting since then.
The Monterrey Consensus was the outcome of the 2002 Monterrey Conference, the United Nations International Conference on Financing for Development. in Monterrey, Mexico. It was adopted by Heads of State and Government on 22 March 2002. Over fifty Heads of State and two hundred Ministers of Finance, Foreign Affairs, Development and Trade participated in the event. Governments were joined by the Heads of the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the World Trade Organization (WTO), prominent business and civil society leaders and other stakeholders. New development aid commitments from the United States and the European Union and other countries were made at the conference. Countries also reached agreements on other issues, including debt relief, fighting corruption, and policy coherence.
The Federal Office for Information Security is the German upper-level federal agency in charge of managing computer and communication security for the German government. Its areas of expertise and responsibility include the security of computer applications, critical infrastructure protection, Internet security, cryptography, counter eavesdropping, certification of security products and the accreditation of security test laboratories. It is located in Bonn and as of 2020 has about 1,100 employees. Its current president, since 1 February 2016, is former business executive Arne Schönbohm, who took over the presidency from Michael Hange.
Strategic Foresight Group (SFG) is a think tank based in India that works on global issues. It was established in 2002.
Jeff Moss, also known as Dark Tangent, is an American hacker, computer and internet security expert who founded the Black Hat and DEF CON computer security conferences.
The IBSA Dialogue Forum is an international tripartite grouping for promoting international cooperation among these countries. It represents three important poles for galvanizing South-South cooperation and greater understanding between three important continents of the developing world namely, Africa, Asia and South America. The forum provides the three countries with a platform to engage in discussions for cooperation in the field of agriculture, trade, culture, and defence among others.
Marina Kaljurand is an Estonian politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in Taavi Rõivas' second cabinet as an independent. Earlier, she served as the Ambassador of Estonia to the United States, Russia, Mexico, Canada, Kazakhstan, and Israel.
Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) is a conference held regularly with the objective "to promote high-level policy dialogue between African leaders and development partners." Japan is a co-host of these conferences. Other co-organizers of TICAD are the United Nations Office of the Special Advisor on Africa (UN-OSAA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The series has included: TICAD I (1993); TICAD II (1998); TICAD III (2003); TICAD IV (2008); TICAD V (2013). The next conference is scheduled for Kenya in August 2016. It will be the first time the event will be held in Africa, previous conferences were all held in Japan.
Information technology law concerns the law of information technology, including computing and the internet. It is related to legal informatics, and governs the digital dissemination of both (digitized) information and software, information security and electronic commerce aspects and it has been described as "paper laws" for a "paperless environment". It raises specific issues of intellectual property in computing and online, contract law, privacy, freedom of expression, and jurisdiction.
The Union for the Mediterranean is an intergovernmental organization of 42 member states from Europe and the Mediterranean Basin: the 27 EU member states and 15 Mediterranean partner countries from North Africa, Western Asia and Southern Europe. It was founded on 13 July 2008 at the Paris Summit for the Mediterranean, with an aim of reinforcing the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (Euromed) that was set up in 1995 as the Barcelona Process. Its general secretariat is located in Barcelona, Spain.
There is no commonly agreed single definition of “cybercrime”. It refers to illegal internet-mediated activities that often take place in global electronic networks. Cybercrime is "international" or "transnational" – there are ‘no cyber-borders between countries'. International cybercrimes often challenge the effectiveness of domestic and international law, and law enforcement. Because existing laws in many countries are not tailored to deal with cybercrime, criminals increasingly conduct crimes on the Internet in order to take advantages of the less severe punishments or difficulties of being traced. No matter, in developing or developed countries, governments and industries have gradually realized the colossal threats of cybercrime on economic and political security and public interests. However, complexity in types and forms of cybercrime increases the difficulty to fight back. In this sense, fighting cybercrime calls for international cooperation. Various organizations and governments have already made joint efforts in establishing global standards of legislation and law enforcement both on a regional and on an international scale. China–United States cooperation is one of the most striking progress recently, because they are the top two source countries of cybercrime.
The 2011 U.S. Department of Defense Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace is a formal assessment of the challenges and opportunities inherent in increasing reliance on cyberspace for military, intelligence, and business operations. Although the complete document is classified and 40 pages long, this 19 page summary was released in July 2011 and explores the strategic context of cyberspace before describing five “strategic initiatives” to set a strategic approach for DoDʼs cyber mission.
The London Somalia Conference was a diplomatic conference hosted by the Government of the United Kingdom, which took place in London on 23 February 2012. Attended by Somali government officials and members of the international community, it focused on resolving issues that have arisen in Somalia in the wake of the civil war.
The World Internet Conference, also known as the Wuzhen Summit, is an annual international event, first held in 2014, organized by government agencies in China to discuss global Internet issues and policies.
The Internet & Jurisdiction Policy Network, also known as "I&J Policy Network", "Internet & Jurisdiction, or simply "I&J", is the multistakeholder organization fostering legal interoperability in cyberspace. Its Secretariat facilitates a global policy process between key stakeholders to enable transnational cooperation and policy coherence. Participants in the Policy Network work together to preserve the cross-border nature of the Internet, protect human rights, fight abuses, and enable the global digital economy. Since 2012, the Internet & Jurisdiction Policy Network has engaged more than 300 key entities from different stakeholder groups around the world, including governments, the world's largest Internet companies, the technical community, civil society groups, leading universities and international organizations.
The Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace was a multistakeholder Internet governance organization, dedicated to the creation of diplomatic norms of governmental non-aggression in cyberspace. It operated for three years, from 2017 through 2019, and produced the diplomatic norm for which it was chartered and seven others.
On November 23rd and 24th, 2017, FIRST participated in the Global Conference on Cyberspace (GCCS), an Internet policy event which is part of the 'London Process', conferences where governments and the wider Internet community gather to 'discuss and promote practical cooperation in cyberspace, to enhance cyber capacity building and to discuss norms for responsible behavior in cyberspace'. The first GCCS was organized in London by the UK Foreign Office and the Delhi event marked the fifth iteration. These conferences have grown in participation from 700 in London in 2011, to 3500 in India. The conference includes governments, civil society and the technical community. The GCCS originally developed to build on the existing World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) process. In the GCCS process, each country coordinates a Chair’s statement, which does not reflect consensus, but reflects at a high level the discussion that took place over the duration of the conference. Notably, the GCCS does not develop treaties, or binding agreements, between states. Instead, the goal is to discuss sensitive and challenging topics and allow participants to develop consensus. Some GCCS have also led to more tangible outcomes. In 2015, the Netherlands launched the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE), which has become a central body for governments and other stakeholders to work on cyber capacity building. The GFCE is a membership-based organization of 38 states, 11 inter-governmental organizations such as the African Union, Council of Europe and OSCE and 9 private sector enterprises.
The London Process began as a conference on cyberspace hosted by the British Foreign Office following a proposal by the country's Foreign Secretary William Hague at the Munich Security conference in 2011 for an international meeting to discuss 'rules of the road' in cyberspace. The deliberation and emphasis of the London Process was to provide a cyberspace that was 'open, global, safe and secure', the specifics of which were to be developed through consensus on various principles and norms amongst the various stakeholders.