WISeKey joins the Multiparty Manifesto on Cybercrime

WISeKuh Join Multiparty Manifesto on Cybercrime

Prioritiz multi-party manifestoes Human-centered actions within the framework of the United Nations draft treaty on cybercrime

Geneva, Switzerland – September 30, 2021 – WISeKey International Holding Ltd (NASDAQ: WKEY; SIX: WIHN), a leading cybersecurity, IoT and AI platform companies, today announced that it has joined more than 50 global organizations and have become a signatory of the Multiparty Manifesto on Cybercrime (“Manifesto”) aimed at raising awareness of the upcoming United Nations (“UN”) negotiations on cybercrime and prioritizing human-centered actions in the framework of the proposed United Nations Cybercrime Treaty.

In 2019, the United Nations General Assembly, following a proposal from the Russian Federation, adopted the resolution establishing an open-ended ad hoc intergovernmental expert committee for a new cybercrime treaty to “develop a comprehensive international convention on combating the use of information. and communication technologies for criminal purposes. Negotiations are expected to start in January 2022 with a tight schedule.

Supporters of the new treaty significantly expand what is currently understood as cybercrime by defining it more broadly. This could lead to serious societal impacts and government regulation that could invade privacy, criminalize free speech and change the role of governments in regulating the Internet, as well as actively undermine existing frameworks carefully designed to fight against cybercrime.

In response, civil society and industry, under the leadership of the CyberPeace Institute and the Cybersecurity Tech Accord, are coming together to launch the Multi-Party Manifesto on Cybercrime. The objective is to propose a set of principles and processes to help governments protect our rights and freedoms online in treaty negotiations at the UN.

The set of key principles consists of:

• Create opportunities for the private sector and civil society to participate in the negotiation process and ensure that the process is as transparent as possible
• Accept that decisions are taken by consensus and not unilaterally
• Clarify the scope of the negotiations so that it is limited to real cybercrime and does not endanger the open and free Internet as we know it today
• Ensure that the result does not call into question existing commitments, such as those enshrined in the Budapest Convention
• Focus on protecting victims of cybercrime and combine accountability mechanisms.

Cyberspace has become an area of ​​growing conflict, as evidenced by the increasing frequency, scale and sophistication of attacks. Threats to our collective security have increased, with cybercrime posing new risks to our societies. Although cybercrime is dangerous, a new United Nations treaty on cybercrime could violate human rights.

Industry and civil society, led by the CyberPeace Institute and the Cybersecurity Tech Accord, come together to launch the Multi-stakeholder Manifesto on Cybercrime to highlight a set of principles and processes for states to protect rights and freedoms necessary to achieve a free, open, secure and peaceful cyberspace, and strengthen respect for the rule of law in this area.

The Manifesto stresses that a new treaty should not be used to undermine existing international legal obligations. Instead, it should focus on strengthening the accountability associated with these obligations and enforcing international cooperation. In addition, it must keep the internet open by not providing any justification or pretext for a state to further endanger it by closing its digital borders.

The Manifesto and its principles reinforce the idea that for an international law against cybercrime to be effective, it must focus on victims of cybercrime and provide them with effective remedial tools.

To establish the right process at the UN, there must be 1) meaningful multi-stakeholder consultation and engagement, 2) transparency, where applicable, 3) clarity in the scope of what is categorized as cybercrime, and 4 ) adopting a consensus-based approach.

About WISeKey
WISeKey (NASDAQ: WKEY; SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN) is a leading global cybersecurity company currently deploying large-scale digital identity ecosystems for people and things using blockchain, IA and IoT while respecting humans as the backbone of the Internet. WISeKey microprocessors secure the ubiquitous computing that shapes today’s Internet of Everything. WISeKey IoT has an installed base of over 1.6 billion microchips in virtually all IoT sectors (connected cars, smart cities, drones, agricultural sensors, anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, computers, cell phones, cryptographic tokens, etc.). WISeKey is uniquely positioned to be at the forefront of IoT, as our semiconductors produce an enormous amount of big data which, when analyzed with artificial intelligence (AI), can help industrial applications predict the failure of their equipment before it occurs.

Our technology is trusted by OISTE / WISeKey’s Switzerland-based Cryptographic Root of Trust (“RoT”) provides secure authentication and identification, in physical and virtual environments, for Internet of Things, blockchain and l ‘artificial intelligence. The WISeKey RoT serves as a common trust anchor to ensure the integrity of online transactions between objects and between objects and people. For more information visit www.wisekey.com.

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