PRESS RELEASE | March 10, 2016
Recent debilitating cyberattacks in the OSCE region have put cybersecurity in the headlines and high on the agenda of government leaders. The ability to maintain networks that are secure, reliable, and resilient is increasingly seen as a critical to maintaining national security and many aspects of international commerce and cooperation.
In 2013, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) adopted a groundbreaking first set of cyber “Confidence Building Measures”. Often called “CBMs”– these risk-reduction measures aim to enhance transparency and prevent misperception among the 57 participating States.
Today, after negotiations carried out over more than two years, the 57-country organization took another unprecedented step, adopting—by consensus– five new CBMs aimed at expanding engagement and building trust and common expectations on cybersecurity-related issues. These new measures envision, for example, engagement with the private sector and critical infrastructure providers as well as sharing approaches to managing common cyber threats.
“With this shared achievement, the OSCE continues to be a trailblazer among regional organizations,” stated U.S. Permanent Representative to the OSCE, Ambassador Daniel Baer, who chairs the OSCE Informal Working Group on Cybersecurity. “As we bear witness to increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks that are global in nature and virtually untraceable, CBMs help mitigate mistrust, fear and tensions, and reinforce confidence where it exists.”
The United States continues to support a multi-stakeholder approach to Internet governance that is characterized by a transparent, bottom-up, consensus-driven processes whereby all governments, the private sector, civil society, and the technical community participate on an equal footing.
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For further information please contact:
U.S. Mission to the OSCE
Kathy Eagen, Public Affairs Counselor
Tel. (+43-1) 31339-3422 / Cell: (+43) 664 322 9879
