The role of CSIRTs in the implementation of UN technical cyber norms

Global digital growth is continuing to fundamentally transform the lives of people, businesses and institutions, bringing people out of poverty, increasing wider prosperity, welfare and enabling new ways for governments and citizens to engage with each other. It is also creating a more connected world and supporting globalisation with greater access to free markets, democratic systems, prosperity and innovation. But as we become more reliant on cyberspace, malicious cyber activity has grown in intensity, complexity and severity over recent years, with rising incidents of cybercrime targeting critical national infrastructure, democratic institutions, business and media. There is too much at risk to allow cyberspace to become a lawless world and there is a need to setup rules and procedures to understand how international law applies to state behaviour in cyberspace just as it does to activities in other domains. The approved norms as part of the UN framework of responsible state behaviour in cyberspace (GGE 2021 and OEWG 2021), is a way to help develop those rules which will guide states to protect their ICT infrastructure better and engage with the others to combat cybercrime effectively in a form which is known as cyber diplomacy.