Greater India US Cyber Security Cooperation Anticipated

India and United States (US) are entering into many bilateral agreements regarding issues like homeland security, cyber security, clean energy and so on. US has also recently released its international strategy for cyberspace.

These initiatives would definitely improve the cyberspace cooperation between India and US. However, bilateral agreements can have limited effect on cyberspace. Till now we have no uniformly acceptable treaty or convention on cyber crimes and cyber security.

There are many international organisations and institutions that are dealing with information and communication technology (ICT) in one form or other. However, none of these international organisations are dealing with cyber crimes at the global level. Thus, the establishment of a harmonised international standard for cyberspace is still missing and is the need of the hour.

Meanwhile, Christopher Painter, the State Department Co-coordinator for Cyber Issues, has said that there would be many more meetings with India on cyber security aspect. India and US are deliberating as to how to exchange information, cooperate in securing networks, fight cyber crimes and both countries are working in this direction.

Painter further said the International Strategy for Cyberspace released early this week for the first time pulls together all the different strands of our policies in cyberspace from Internet freedom issues to Internet governance issues, to security issues, to military issues, to cyber crime issues, to economic issues, and puts them really all in one framework for the first time.

However, irrespective what US and India say, global cooperation and collaboration is the first and foremost requirements to have a better cyberspace. At the same time there is no doubt that if India and US work together in this direction, this may be the beginning of creating a global consensus. This dialogue is a good step in the right direction.