As nations seek greater security and prosperity for their people, a safer, more resilient Cyberspace is essential to achieving these goals. How can a shared commitment to collaboration and collective action transform cybersecurity challenges into opportunities for development and growth?

 

This was the question at the center of Meet GCF New York, the latest in GCF’s global series of events, which convened diplomats and high-level officials at the United Nations (UN) Headquarters, alongside the 10th Substantive Session of the UN Open-ended Working Group (OEWG) on Information and Communication Technologies.

 

Discussions highlighted the borderless nature of Cyberspace, underscoring the critical need for nations to resist defaulting to geostrategic competition at a time when scaling up multistakeholder efforts to strengthen global cybersecurity is imperative.

 

The need for a cyber social contract

 

At Meet GCF New York, the first United States National Cyber Director, Chris Inglis, took to the stage for a fireside chat on the theme: ‘Collective Action in Cyberspace: Transforming Challenges into Opportunities’. Inglis is the co-author of ‘The Cyber Social Contract’, a Foreign Affairs article that posits that Cyberspace requires a shared commitment to one another in order to share its benefits equitably and ensure its security.

 

“We thought there was nothing more profound than a social contract because we understood that Cyberspace was one and the same as human space,” said Inglis, emphasizing humans’ “existential dependence” on cyber infrastructure.