UN Security Council Confronts Growing Threat Of Cyber Attacks

The Security Council has addressed the subject in the past, but only informally, both in public or behind closed doors.

The UN Security Council on Tuesday will hold its first formal public meeting on cybersecurity, addressing the growing threat of hacks to countries' key infrastructure, an issue Joe Biden recently raised with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. At their summit earlier this month in Geneva, the US president set out red lines for Russia, which is often accused of being behind major hacks. In this case, he laid out 16 "untouchable" entities, ranging from the energy sector to water distribution. "This is the generic list of critical infrastructure which every country has," said one European ambassador who specializes in cybersecurity. "In the United Nations first committee, we already have agreed in 2015, which is six years ago, that we are refraining from malicious cyber activities against each other's critical infrastructures as UN member states," the diplomat said.