Experts seek clear cybersecurity rules to enable tech cooperation

Allegations against Chinese tech companies like Huawei serve a political purpose but ruin the global technological trend to break barriers for cooperation, experts said.

So, clear regulations on cybersecurity could help address global needs given its increasing importance for the digital era and to develop and to break down barriers for cooperation.

A resolution passed by the United Nations General Assembly on Friday with the aim of creating a new international convention on cybercrime is expected to be conducive to meeting global needs.

Abdul Wahid Mattoo, the security incident response manager at Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company, also known as du, said the United States is using politics against Huawei and others for economic self-interest.

And it is crucial for companies and countries to collaborate on 5G and other fields, as partnering with companies who have strong expertise can help to better promote innovation.

Du and Huawei have been working together since 2006 and are now partnering to develop a 5G network. They released a joint white paper on the value of this technology in October.

Referring to Huawei and using its network devices, Mattoo said: “I’ve never encountered a security-related incident which would tell (me) that something is wrong somewhere, or the information is going somewhere else.

“We haven’t seen any unusual activities.”

Mauro Pezze, a professor of software engineering at Schaffhausen Institute of Technology, or SIT, in Switzerland, said that governments, companies and individuals must understand what to adopt in terms of cybersecurity regulations to break barriers for cooperation.

Barriers will likely emerge if innovative technologies are overprotected, which can be unhealthy for development, said Pezze.

Serguei Beloussov, the co-founder and CEO of Acronis, an international cybersecurity firm with headquarters in Switzerland and Singapore, said he hoped less onerous regulations and fewer trade barriers would promote the development of the global economy and stimulate innovation.

He added that he did not expect concerns over cybersecurity in issues like the United States-China trade conflict to be resolved soon, since technology is rapidly evolving.

“Any area where … the situation is not 100 percent clear, it becomes a good area for politics,” said Beloussov, referring to cybersecurity concerns raised during the US-China talks.

Speaking further about cybersecurity laws, Beloussov said the same kind of regulations and laws applicable to many other industries were not in place for the cyberworld.

As for punitive measures, he said: “I generally do not think that barriers between countries are good things. I think, in the vast majority of cases, various regulations decrease the size of the global economy and make everybody in the world poorer.”

The global spending on cybersecurity-related hardware, software and services will reach $151.2 billion in 2023, with a compound annual growth rate of 9.4 percent, according to global market research firm International Data Corporation.

Meanwhile, China and the US are soon expected to clinch a “phase one” economic and trade agreement, which includes issues related to intellectual property rights and technology transfer, among others, according to Xinhua.