Minister agrees to SP request for report on cyber attacks
Minister agrees to SP request for report on cyber attacks
Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal today agreed to SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel’s request to commission an independent report – from the Advisory Council on International Issues (AIV) - on the risks of an attack via the Internet, or so-called ‘cyber attack’. Combating international aggression via the Internet will be discussed next weekend at the NATO summit in Lisbon, and fresh measures may find a place in the alliance’s new strategic concept.
Van Bommel was prompted to submit his request by recent cyber attacks on Estonia, Iran and China. According to the SP foreign affairs spokesman, cyber attacks could paralyse a country’s digital infrastructure and provoke a war with conventional weapons. “What the risks are and how we should react to these is still far from clear, as is how this threat and meeting it are regarded under international law. I have asked the minister to lay the emphasis on this latter aspect in his request for an advisory report.”
Early in the new year the government will issue a statement outlining its own view of the risks posed by an attack via the Internet. “The advisory report from AIV is expected to be available around the same time so we will be able to look at them side by side and if necessary come to more detailed agreements over actual measures,” Van Bommel suggests.