The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a special UN organisation that is “committed to connecting all the world’s people,” ended 10 days of largely closed-doors meetings in Dubai, where the agenda seemed to be more aimed at controlling global communications. In opening remarks to the 2,000 delegates from 193 countries, the ITU Secretary-General, Hamadan Toure, emphasised that cybersecurity should come first and, implicitly, that it should come under his purview. For all the commitments to openness that he and others profess, this conference is about the national security interests of countries.

For starters, Toure would like to see some form of UN control of internet domain names and numbers, something currently administered by the private, nonprofit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). However, this would hardly improve security by itself. There is a kind of naive faith that if nation-states exert greater control over cyberspace-based communications, security will improve. China, Russia and a host of other nations — most of them authoritarian — love the idea of more control, as this will enable greater censorship and erode individual privacy. Sadly, many liberal democratic states, out of a mix of economic and security concerns, go along with the idea of giving nations more authority to regulate cyber-communications. Among the matters that are feared to have been under discussion is the imposition of cyber tolls — charges levied to allow entry into a country’s cybersphere, or “virtual territory”. Another effort lies in the realm of fighting paedophiles and curtailing the worst sorts of pornography. Surely this is a noble undertaking, but some worry that authoritarians might really be aiming to further undermine their peoples’ freedom of speech, privacy and civil liberties — all in the name of this good cause.

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of increasing national-level control of cyberspace is the idea being bruited about that anonymity should be banned. Again, there are logical reasons to think about this: Making life harder for terrorists, tracking criminals and deterring social predators. However, many of these malicious actors have sufficient expertise to slip the bonds of such a ban, while the rest of us will have lost our privacy. The fact that “deep packet” inspection — giving nations the right and power to read encrypted cybertraffic — is also on the table for discussion is troubling too.

Several protests have arisen to the World Conference on International Telecommunications in Dubai. One of the most articulate opposing voices is that of Vint Cerf of Google, an internet pioneer. His critique has two parts: First, that voices other than those of nation-states need to be heard. Second, that it is the very lack of governmental controls and sheer openness of the internet that create value and drives the information age forward. Protest has also taken the form of insurgency. It seems that “hacktivist” organisation Anonymous may be involved in disruptive cyber acts that have slowed, and at one point stopped, the operations of the conference’s official website. This group and many people of like mind around the world see much to worry about when it comes to closed-door meetings of government representatives.

There is also a deep irony in the desire of nations to seek more control over cyberspace. Dictators have abused their existing abilities to restrict access in efforts to chill dissent. Hosni Mubarak shut down the internet in just such an attempt. However, he failed because the Egyptian masses had been using cyberspace to share their anger and gather their courage for many months before the regime struck at the internet. Indeed, the shutdown was the signal to the people that it was time to go to Tahrir Square. Bashar Al Assad seems to have tried something similar over a week ago in Syria, when the internet went down briefly. He too will fail. In the end, UN efforts to control cyberspace, aided and abetted by all too many nations, will fail as well.

The virtual world is a vast wilderness — artificial, but beautiful and complex and growing in size and direction in ways that almost surely lie beyond the ability of governments to control. The sooner this is realised, the better. It will save the world from a costly global struggle between balky nations and nimble insurgent networks.

There are better things for the UN to focus on if it wishes to play a productive role in the information age. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, whose video address at the opening of the Dubai conference spoke of a desire to foster openness and internet freedom, should act on his words and reject the role of regulator. He should lead his organisation as a negotiator, fostering behaviour-based forms of cyber arms control — as there is still time to head off an age of “mass disruptive” cyberwars. Almost all IT is dual-use. Any laptop can be used to wage cyberwar. However, it is possible to craft agreements not to use such weaponry first, not to use it against civilian infrastructure or in acts of “cybotage,” as in the case of the Stuxnet worm attack on Iran. Many of the nations that have signed the chemical and biological weapons conventions can still make these terrible weapons, but promise not to do so or to use them. If the UN wants a role, it should seek a similar behavioural approach to arms control in cyberspace. Russia first proposed something like this at the UN back in the ‘90s. The US opposed it. Now the Russians are among the best cyberwarriors in the world and American cybersecurity is in a parlous state. What is to be done?

Let me make a modest suggestion to Toure: Stream the Dubai conference to the world in a webcast. Allow a global discourse to commence, one in which nations and networks together will find the right way ahead. If you are for openness, then be open.

— Washington Post

John Arquilla is professor of defence analysis at the US Naval Postgraduate School and author of Worst Enemy: The Reluctant Transformation of the American Military.