“Threats of attacks on an international stock exchange, a major dam, a nuclear power plant, possible sabotaging of oil/gas pipelines, air safety systems of airports, or potential blocking of an international canal or straits have much wider implications and pursuant complications far beyond national frontiers,” Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin, Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations said at the world body. He was addressing UN Security Council at an Open Debate on “Threats to International Peace and Security caused by terrorist acts: Protection of Critical Infrastructure” today, 13 February 2017.
Reiterating that protection of critical infrastructure is primarily a national responsibility, the Indian envoy told world leaders that given that much of our technologies and base templates for systems around the world are similar, because, “threats serve the purpose of creating disruption on a scale far beyond the immediate area of attack. They affect the population on a much broader scale. They force the multiple stakeholders providing basic services to be on constant guard. Thus, they not only add to the stress on these stakeholders and their societies but also raise the cost of services provided.”
These attacks, have crippling effects not only on daily life in a bustling metropolis but targeted a country of a billion people, he said. “The global nature of information and communication technologies raises the necessity for an international vision and coordination on policy aspects with the aim of enhancing capabilities,” he added.
According to Akbaruddin, increasingly the ideas, industries, markets, resources, services and products we share are interconnected in ways like never before. Increasingly, from the way we trade to the way we invest; the way we travel to the way we eat; indeed the way we think to the way we live – all in some way or the other depend on a spread of complex and sensitive networks. “These interconnections that underpin the provision of essential societal functions have created a new form of vulnerability, giving terrorists the chance to threaten targets that would perhaps otherwise have been unassailable,” he said.
The Indian Ambassador to the UN stated that big urban centers like Mumbai, New York and London have become targets as impact on cities serving as financial hubs affect the economy of the country in multiple ways. He pointed to the fact that the investigations into the heinous terrorist attacks on Mumbai in 2008 revealed the impact its perpetrators wanted to have on the psyche and economy of the whole of India.
Lamenting that despite years of concern, states have addressed few international instruments addressing issues of threats from cyberspace. Current international law is not well positioned to support responses to cyber attacks. “Security Council decisions that impose binding counter-terrorism duties do not mention cyber attacks,” he pointed out.
Stressing the importance of collaboration among nations, the Indian envoy said, it is “key to moving the perimeter you defend from your front door to the edge of your neighborhood. Critical infrastructure protection from terrorist cyber attacks requires a “global neighborhood watch program” because, as they say, there is safety in numbers. Any effective collaboration requires trust. And currently, there is a trust deficit. The lesson from the past is that, international law on terrorism has largely developed through states reacting to terrorist violence. We hope this is not the case again and the resolution adopted earlier today is a first small step in an area where much more needs to be done,” he told the world leaders