Johns Hopkins APL’s Steve Waugh: Int’l Cybersecurity Body Will Ensure Citizen Protection

Steve Waugh, an acting chief scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, has said that industry and government leaders must work to establish a framework for an “independent, international organization” focused on cybersecurity.

Waugh wrote in a guest piece published Wednesday in National Defense Magazine that a group similar to the Geneva Convention will help protect citizens through cyber warfare regulations that encompass international laws.

He noted that a cybersecurity-focused international body would establish boundaries for cyber warfare and define cyber-focused “acts of war” to support the operations of new military units such as the U.S. Cyber Command.

According to Waugh, private and public sector leaders should work with international lawyers to develop a framework for the international group and use language form guidance like the U.S. Military Universal Joint Task List.

“An independent international organization supported by independent citizens and businesses can succeed with the help of international lawyers, where governments have failed,” he said. “Because cyberattacks do not draw blood, an international business association with global vision may be the more appropriate group to address the protection of civilians.”