US has undertaken a number of initiatives on cybersecurity, specifically ransomware, one of them being the Counter-Ransomware Initiative Meeting held in October 2021. Whether this attempt by the US to mobilise a larger group of countries to discuss ransomware will lead to real outcomes, or is just meant to endorse its actions, remains to be seen.
It may seem premature to discuss the advent of an illiberal global order, however, the numerous catalytic events of recent years and the apparent decline of American heft in shaping global norms and structures might indicate that the international system is on the cusp of a major transformation.
To sustain its historical interest and influence in the UN peacekeeping operations, India should provide technical assistance to the missions while continuing to contribute troops, rather than a complete transformation from being a traditional troop contributor to a technology contributor.
The article makes an attempt to bring to the fore the various factors which are considered in the due process of attribution of a cyber-attack and the correlation of credible attribution with cyber deterrence. The focal point of the article is a three-step approach to model the decision-making process behind attribution of cyber-attacks using Bayesian Belief Networks and a case study to elucidate on the functioning of the model.
The ever-growing dependence of man on cybernetworks has unbridled a modish genre of cyberthreat called cyberterrorism. The pervasive cyberspace has provided an advantageous operational frontier to the terrorists for executing cyberattacks on critical infrastructures, spreading hate propaganda over the Internet and using it for recruitment, planning and effecting terror attacks.
The weaponisation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been a new element in twenty-first century warfare where ‘biowarfare’ is no exception. Active research has been taking place on the Internet of Things (IoT) domain which finds a wide range of applications in biology. Digitalisation and artificial intelligence have a significant impact on the functioning of microbiology laboratories.
Despite the existence of several mechanisms and frameworks that regulate the use and production of CBWs, they continue to exist, and pose risk to environmental and human health. Their use in wars and conflicts in the past have inflicted severe damages on ecosystems, as evidenced by the cases of different wars. Yet these issues are seldom brought up in the narratives on chemical and biological warfare, except from a moral point of view.
The COVID-19 crisis has emerged at a time when the world has been witnessing a renewed geopolitical rivalry, and the pandemic has accentuated it. As a result, the quest for the origins of the SARS CoV-2 has remained elusive, even after a long-awaited investigation done by the WHO. Geopolitics seems to have been the final arbiter of the probe, rather than science.
It is unclear at present how the proposal by China and Pakistan for an Aspirational (Ethical) Code under the BTWC will be taken forward through to the 9th Review Conference of the Convention in 2022. However, some difficult questions will have to be addressed for this process to be successful in producing a code that can then be implemented in more detailed codes of conduct and codes of practice in national and professional settings after the Review Conference.
Countering the Menace of Ransomware
US has undertaken a number of initiatives on cybersecurity, specifically ransomware, one of them being the Counter-Ransomware Initiative Meeting held in October 2021. Whether this attempt by the US to mobilise a larger group of countries to discuss ransomware will lead to real outcomes, or is just meant to endorse its actions, remains to be seen.