acm-header
Sign In

Communications of the ACM

ACM TechNews

­.s. and Russia Sign Pact to Create Communication Link on Cybersecurity


View as: Print Mobile App Share:
A red telephone.

The U.S. and Russia have agreed to alert each other of cyberexercises that could be misperceived as attacks, and to create a secure phone link to allow those nations' cybersecurity officials to speak directly to each other, in the event of an incident.

Credit: The Historical Society

The United States and Russia have announced a first-of-its-kind agreement to use real-time communications about national security incidents to lower the risk of conflict in cyberspace.

The two countries will use the U.S. Nuclear Risk Reduction Center to alert each other of cyberexercises that could be misperceived as attacks. In addition, a secure phone link will be established to enable U.S. and Russian cybersecurity officials to speak directly in the event of an incident, a working group will be formed, and processes will be created for technical information exchange between the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team and its Russian counterpart.

"We recognize that threats to or in the use of [computer technologies] include political-military and criminal threats, as well as threats of a terrorist nature, and are some of the most serious national and international security challenges we face in the 21st century," says a joint statement from President Barack Obama and President Vladimir Putin. "We view this cooperation as essential to safeguarding the security of our countries."

The exchange of technical data called for in the agreement would be stripped of personal identifying information and would include Internet protocol addresses that point to computer networks that host malicious activity.

From The Washington Post
View Full Article

 

Abstracts Copyright © 2013 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA


 

No entries found

Sign In for Full Access
» Forgot Password? » Create an ACM Web Account