Cyber Warfare Is Still a Free-for-All

SAN FRANCISCO—Between cyberattacks against power grids and election influence campaigns, nations are increasingly waging war through the internet with the rest of us stuck in the middle. At RSA, experts pondered what, if anything, can be done to make everyone play nice.

RSA bug artThe main concern for panelists was how to enforce norms and agreements between countries about what they can and cannot do online. One method is to form a coalition of countries to unanimously and publicly condemn the actions of another country. This is especially true with the use of sanctions.

"Our sanctions policy is that much stronger when other countries join us in those sanctions," said Rob Strayer, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Cyber and International Communications and Information Policy at the US State Departmen

Cyber attacks are rewriting the 'rules' of modern warfare—and we aren't prepared for the consequences

Governments are becoming ever more reliant on digital technology, making them more vulnerable to cyber attacks. In 2007, Estonia was attacked by pro-Russian hackers who crippled government servers, causing havoc. Cyber attacks in Ukraine targeted the country's electricity grid, while Iran's nuclear power plants were infected by malware that could have led to a nuclear meltdown.

In the US, president Trump recently declared a "national emergency" to recognise the threat to US computer networks from "foreign adversaries".

No crime in Huawei 5G leak: British police

The top-secret leak that Britain had conditionally allowed China's Huawei to develop its 5G network, which brought down the defence minister, does not amount to a criminal offence, police concluded Saturday.

Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday sacked Gavin Williamson as defence secretary over the leak last month of the bitterly-disputed decision made at the April 23 meeting of the National Security Council (NSC).

Following the police announcement, Williamson, who has strenuously protested his innocence, said he was the victim of a shabby "witch-hunt".