Name of the Committee:

World Conference on Cyber

Security Author: Natalia Amortegui Peña, Juan

Pablo Moreno, Kareem Mansour

Time for opening speech: 90 seconds.

The Global Conference on Cyberspace

(GCCS) was first held in London in 2011,

and is done every year. This conference is

held by governments, experts on

cybersecurity, security agencies and all

sort of companies of the private sector.

The purpose of these conferences is to

evaluate the different problems and

situations that are related to the use of

cyberspace, and agree on solutions, rules

and commitments that can address each

problem in a correct and sustainable

manner, the conference also enhances

the sharing of information and data

between countries and companies to

create spaces of global development and

finally, to search and reach new forms of

technological advances that help to the

development and improvement of

modern technology. The pillars of the

committee are based upon inclusive ways

of development, prevent the use of

technology in a negative way and the

creation of new rules and policies that can

make the internet safer for all people. The

reach of the committee is moderated as

each country and company decides what

rules and solutions to take into account.

TOPIC A: DATA-STEALING

ORGANIZATIONS

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Data breaches have occurred since before

the digitalization of information.

Nonetheless, since the digitalization era

begun, it has become highly efficient to

use technology to facilitate stealing data.

The first major data breach, caused by

using technology, took place in march in

the year 2005, from the DSW Shoe

Warehouse, where 1.4 million credit card

numbers and account datas were

breached. Yet, data breaches do not occur

exclusively do corporations or enterprises,

government institutions have become a

main target for hackers and data-stealing

organizations.

Organizations such as Wikileaks have

been major factors which have

contributed to governmental information

breaches.

Wikileaks was initiated in 2006, in Iceland

by an organization named “Sunshine

Press”. Julian Assange is considered to be

the funder and director of the

organization.

According to wikileaks.com their main

purpose is “to bring important news and

information to the public…One of our

most important activities is to publish

original source material alongside our

news stories so readers and historians

alike can see the evidence of the truth.”

CAUSES

Plenty of organizations have named a

plethora of causes as to why they carry

out their attacks. Most of them though

have stated that their purpose is to

expose corruption and ‘dirty deeds’ by the

world governments. Organizations such as

Wikileaks and Anonymous have rallied

behind these motive, but also plenty of

hacker groups simply steal data to sell it

to the highest bidder. It is important to

take this into account when addressing

the topic, as plenty of causes can arise, all

depending on each individual case.

REPERCUSSIONS

There is an important difference between

the repercussions of a data breach, and

itself of a gubernamental data breach,

delegates must always bear this

distinction in mind. Some repercussions of

data breaches are loss of data, loss of

monetary resources, loss of intellectual

property, and a risk of physical data loss,

amongst others.

A gubernamental data breach implies

other types of repercussions, which cause

an effect not solely upon the institution

whose data was breached, and the

subjects directly linked to it, but, the

effects itself have a much larger numerical

repercussion.

Breach of information:

Gubernamental data breaches, have as a

main repercussion, that sensible

information is outed and exposed to the

public. Information which can harm the

government it was extracted from, its

political foreign associations, the

international community perspective

upon them, and, even so the perspective

of their own people, amongst others.

Repercussions of Wikileaks in the countries media

impact (extracted from MRI Universidad de

Navarra.)

Perspective upon governments:

A gubernamental data breach, causes a

major change upon the perspective of said

government. The outing of private

sensitive information a government has

on their power, causes mainly for its own

population to have a negative perspective

towards their government, and can even

cause foreign people to stand upon said

government.

Protest in Kiev, Ukraine. Against arrest of Assange

in the United Kingdom, and the United States

reaction to leaked documents. (Extracted form

Efrem Lukatsky.)

CURRENT SITUATION

International Actions:

Regarding treaties, there are no

international treaties or conventions

which cover espionage and data breaches

in the specific context using technology.

Some countries have federal laws, such as

the 1917 Espionage Act of the United

States. Yet, there are no major

conventions itself regarding data-stealing

organizations, which use technology as

their main tool. The aforementioned can

be attributed to the fact that digitalization

is somewhat new, thus, it is of the

uttermost importance, that the delegates

reach a consensus on the topic, and

establish international treaties or

conventions to deal with this new form of

espionage.

Study cases:

The main and most known data-stealing

organization in the world, is Wikileaks,

founded and directed by Julian Assange.

An international non-profit organization

which is based upon publishing secret and

sensible information and classified media.

There is potential criminal prosecution,

mainly in behalf of the United States of

America. As the US Justice Department

has initiated a criminal investigation on

Wikileaks and Assange. The United States

has reportedly considered charges under

the Espionage Act of 1917.

Australia’s primer insistir Julia Gillard

stated that Wikileaks, its foundation and

acts from the United States is punishable

in other countries.

Donations transferred to Wikileaks (extracted from

Nathan L. Fuller)

ORIENTATION AND OBJECTIVE OF THE

COMMITTEE

The chair expects the delegates to debate

firstly upon the acts of data-stealing

organizations, and the legality of these.

Furthermore, actions to avoid data

breaches, and was well the formation of

an international treaty or convention

which bears in mind data-stealing

organizations which use technology as

their main tool.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

1. Has your government been a

target of data stealing?

2. Has your country any laws

regarding espionage and more

specifically the aforementioned

using technology?

3. Has your country had any type of

actions regarding data-stealing

organizations?

SOURCES

Assange, J. (n.d.). WikiLeaks. [online]

Wikileaks.org. Available at:

https://wikileaks.org [Accessed 20 Dec.

2018].

Jones, A. (2015). Pentagon Papers II? On

WikiLeaks and the First Amendment. [online] The Wall Street Journal. Available

at:

https://blogs.wsj.com/law/2010/07/26/p

entagon-papers-ii-on-wikileaks-and-the-fir

st-amendment/ [Accessed 20 Dec. 2018].

Center, E. (n.d.). EPIC - EPIC v. DOJ - FBI:

Wikileaks. [online] Epic.org. Available at:

https://epic.org/foia/doj/wikileaks/defaul

t.html [Accessed 20 Dec. 2018].

SUPPORT LINKS

https://wikileaksreputationcrisis.wordpres

s.com/2011/01/06/wikileaks-country-med

ia-attention-index-some-selected-example

s/

https://wikileaks.org

TOPIC B: THE STUXNET VIRUS

The Student Virus, is a malware which

therefore means “a software which is

specifically designed to disrupt, damage,

or gain authorized access to a computer

system”, which has been reported to have

been hampering the Iranian nuclear

program. In 2010, fourteen Iranian

industrial sites were infected by this

computer worm, among them the Natanz

nuclear site. Even though it has never

been confirmed, The United States and

Israel have been suspected to colluding on

creating this virus, as experts believed

that the level of sophistication of the

malware was such, that it must have been

supported by a national government.

Overview:

Considering the undeniable importance of

technology to modern day world, and the

vast uses it has for societal benefit,

technological warfare through malware is

a double sided weapon, where belligerent

groups and criminals might attempt to

disrupt a government or legal binding

organization, but at the same time,

government enforcement can target

those threats in an array of ways. Be it

from tracking suspicious individuals, to

targeting illegitimate nuclear

programmes, technological interactions

will be the future of safeguarding

communities. At an international

spectrum, cyber security is already an

undeniable issue that has sparked

international attention and concern.

The Stuxnet Virus Definition:

tensions in various circumstances

including an alleged meddling in the 2016

U.S Presidential Election, however the

scope of those attacks have exceeded

such limits, even to disrupt nuclear

development programs such as the role of

the Stuxnet virus to prevent Iran from

obtaining nuclear warfare, with the

leverage of the continuous threats made

by Iran, to both American sovereignty but

more alarmingly Israeli sovereignty, as the

supreme leadership in Iran, has openly

expressed its will to destroy the State of

Israel.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The time when computer viruses became

widespread phenomenon came in 1970’s.

However, it wasn’t before late 1980’s that

a computer malware called Morris worm

managed to affect cyber infrastructure,

and only in the 2000s the cyber-attacks

started threatening countries in such a

scale as we know it today. The Morris

Worm felony was distributed through the

internet, which exploited vulnerabilities

across the internet such as guessing weak

passwords, accessing emails. As a result,

The Morris Worm lead the path to the

first conviction under the U.S 1986

Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Deemed

as the “Great Worm” it had devastating

effects on the Internet at that time; both

in overall system downtime and in

psychological impact on the perception of

security and reliability of the Internet.

Since the end of the Cold War, the world

has undergone a technological revolution,

mainly led by developments and progress

in communication technology - computer

sciences have dramatically and rapidly

evolved. Naturally, it makes perfect sense

that warfare has evolved simultaneously.

Cyber Warfare, has also been soaring in

the agendas of international bodies, both

nationally, supra-nationally and

internationally. To illustrate this, the

perceived threat estimated to be felt by

the CIA/NSA of Cyber Warfare has grown

from the 39th biggest threat to US

national security in 2006 to the largest

possible threat to homeland security in

2013. And it's costly - it's estimated to

have cost the corporate world $10 billion.

In 2002, an Iranian opposition group

publicly revealed two undeclared nuclear

facilities, resulting in Iran admitting to

having constructed facilities for fuel

enrichment and heavy water production,

ostensibly for use in research reactors.

Iran suspended its plans in 2003 but

resumed them in 2006 and insists that it

has the right to establish its own uranium

enrichment program.

Iran maintains that its nuclear program is

entirely peaceful. However, the IAEA

(International Atomic Energy Agency)

insists that Iran does not comply with the

safeguard program it has agreed to,

resulting in various sanctions against Iran

by the UN Security Council. It is widely

believed that Iran is in fact working

toward producing nuclear weapons.

Assuming that Stuxnet was intended to

damage this suspected nuclear weapons

program, it was somewhat effective: it

may have destroyed 1,000 centrifuges at

Natanz, about 11% of the total number

installed at the time. In addition, Stuxnet

decreased production of enriched

uranium and likely sowed chaos within

the Iranian nuclear

program. Israel and the U.S. are the

leading suspects as Stuxnet’s creators.

Neither are friends of Iran’s current

leadership (to put it mildly) and both,

especially Israel, fear a nuclear-armed

Iran.

CAUSES

The importance of cyber security on an

international scale is rapidly expanding

faster and more dynamically than most

anyone can comprehend. Many observers

note that the world as a whole is not

adequately keeping up with the rate at

which civilization’s capabilities of

transmitting, intercepting and tampering

with data is becoming ever more

important in the day to day functionalities

of our society. As the first major cyber

weapon seen that was created and

unleashed in a specific and targeted way,

Stuxnet is the veritable ground zero of the

age of digital warfare.

It is no secret that for a number of years

the United States and its allies have been

attempting, by any means necessary, to

stop the nation of Iran from acquiring

nuclear capabilities with which it could

potentially manufacture weapons of mass

destruction. By mid 2009 or even earlier,

the United States had added cyberwarfare

to the list of these means in an effort to

shut down Iran’s nuclear program3. It is

now widely accepted that the U.S, in

conjunction with the nation of Israel, was

specifically involved in the testing and

development of the worm.

From a strategic perspective, following a

variety of attempts to dismantle Iran’s

nuclear program, the use of cyber warfare

was a logical means through which the

United States could achieve its goal. Part

of the effectiveness of the worm lies in its

ability to remain undetected, as well as its

complex nature as a multifaceted piece of

malware that serves multiple purposes.

This dynamic attack bundled into one

program has many implications for

international cyber warfare, showing that

it may be more effective and useful to

carry out attacks with burrowed software

of this nature rather than attempt a

classic remote assault on a system that is

being actively monitored.

As the Stuxnet worm is highly specialized,

highly targeted malware program which

attacks a specific type of Siemens

industrial system, it is a much more

functional strategy to try and destroy

large scale systems such as the one

responsible for the development of

nuclear warfare. The worm was first

transmitted through a portable USB,

which was introduced either by an

unknowing third party or an intentional

infiltrator whose aim was to connect the

original infected drive. It was

approximately half a megabyte in size,

and could move quickly through any

windows system due to its promiscuous

behaviour and its ability to gain

administrator accesses through elevation

of privilege exploits, as well as in some

cases over local area network transfers.

Stuxnet differentiates itself from a typical

virus in the way that it does not need a

host file to burrow into and propagate

itself. It stands as an individual program

which, though hidden, is represented as a

grouping of files which, as will be later

examined, is initially present on a disk and

can move on its own to a newly

connected drive and through a number of

other ways as well.

Stuxnet is, at its core, a rootkit. Upon

download onto a drive, the worm installs

itself as a basic driver with authentic

certification, and renders itself invisible to

detection as it begins to execute its

function. It is extremely specific in what it

targets; downloading it onto your own

personal computer would do nothing

besides allow for its propagation to a set

maximum of three other targetable

systems, and, assuming the you are not

connected to Siemens industrial software,

would remain dormant.

REPERCUSSIONS

Stuxnet did far more than simply slow

down the progress of the Iranian nuclear

program. As the first major specifically

targeted cyber weapon, it has fulfilled

what many since the beginning of the 21st

century have been anticipating, the first

strike of what will most likely come to

dominate the future of conflicts and wars

between nations. Stuxnet was a highly

specific weapon, and certainly not the last

of its kind. Since late 2010, the code for

the Stuxnet bug has become publicly

available on the internet, and has without

doubt served as a template for other

similar cyber weapons including the

infamous “Flame” counterpart to Stuxnet.

For many in the fields of international

relations and global security policy, the

advent of cyber warfare is a puzzle whose

surface has yet to even be scratched. The

implications of what a certain kind of

attack should illicit when carried out by

one country against the other is anyone’s

guess. The implication here is that in a

future of Cyber conflict, the blueprints of

powerful weaponry would no longer be

stored in top secret CIA vaults, but rather

on the publicly open repositories of

Github.

All political and military conflicts now

have a cyber dimension, whose size and

impact are difficult to predict. Attackers

have at their disposal a wide variety of

effective cyber warfare strategies and

tactics. Above all, the Internet is

vulnerable to attack. Further, its

amplifying power means that future

victories in cyberspace could translate

into victories on the ground. Both state

and non-state actors enjoy a high return

on investment in cyber tactics, which

range from the placement of carefully

crafted propaganda to the manipulation

of an adversary's critical infrastructure.

The issue of cyber warfare often gets

blurred into other ongoing political,

military and economic rivalries and

disputes, making it harder to police on an

international level, as the world becomes

increasingly polarized. However, there is

still great potential for agreements to

protect against and combat cyber

warfare.

(Retrieved from: Stuxnet: The Virus That Shutdown

Iran’s Nuclear Program, Who Developed Stuxnet,

And How The U.S. Protects Itself. (2018))

CURRENT SITUATION

Since cyber defence raised red flags to

those governments targeted, it has

become a reality for the whole

international community that the use of

technology, apart from dominating the

world and serving societies as an asset, is

also a very vulnerable tool that is prone to

suffer deliberate attacks which can have

society’s productiveness at a standstill.

International Actions:

The Tallinn Manual:

The United States Department of Defense

named cyberspace a new domain of

defense only as recently as 2011 and

characterizes cyber action as an emerging

“instrument of power”. International

regulation and law is only now just

starting to address cyber warfare in its

scope of understanding, with a great step

having been taken in the publication of

the Tallinn Manual as recently as March of

2013. This initial established policy on

international cyber security will hopefully

lay down foundations and precedent for

resolving and perhaps preventing cyber

conflicts. Certainly this field brings with it

new threats and new incentives for

innovation, but its rapid development will

require more and more attention. This

behooves people who exist at the

intersection of technical expertise and

policy experience to step into the

challenging nexus of cyber security, so

that the world can move into a more

secure future.

UN Actions Taken:

The UN General Assembly, Economic and

Social Council, and Security Council often

stress the importance of cybersecurity.

These organs usually refer responsibilities

to the International Telecommunications

Union (ITU) which is a UN agency based in

Geneva which is responsible for

coordinating efforts on these issues. They

study cyber activity and set standards to

which various governments are supposed

to adhere to. The difficulty with such

organizations is these standards are often

non-binding and there are not enough

mechanisms to force countries to play by

the rules. Another major difficulty in

combating cybercrimes is the sheer

amount of data that needs to be

monitored in order to catch

cybercriminals. Several NGOs have

stepped up efforts to monitor cyber

activities and on reporting on

cybersecurity issues. The International

Association of Cybercrime Prevention

which “provides information and training

about cybercrime prevention. It is also an

interdisciplinary research organization

bringing together experts, professionals,

and individuals involved with the misuse

of Information Communications

Technology.” The Cyber Peace Foundation

is another NGO which is also involved with

raising “awareness, counseling, education,

training and to reach out to the citizens,

the governments, law enforcement

agencies (LEAs), private enterprises, NGOs

working in cyber crimes and cyber

security, universities, cyber security

experts and bug bounty hunters; to

provide a common platform on a global

level.”

ORIENTATION AND OBJECTIVE OF THE

COMMITTEE

The threat of nuclear our other

radiological material being misused is a

pressing reality of today’s world. The

cyber security in nuclear framework must

address both random malicious acts to

complex targeted attacks. The World

Conference On Cyber Security being a

fundamental committee for world peace

is expected to come up with a

comprehensive solution to the topic,

where a new legal framework is drafted

and by working together with fellow

organizations such as the UN, and both

the International Criminal Court and the

International Court of Justice to ensure a

proper prosecution to those who attempt

to tamper with international peace and

stability through means such as

technology which are fundamental for the

modern day society. Cyber attacks can be

prevented with two different types of

measures: The first type intending to

prevent states from carrying out cyber

attacks and the second type being

measures to increase security of the

networks which have the highest risk of

being attacked. Most states have laws

regulating computer crimes done by

individuals or non-state actors to

hopefully prevent any cyber attacks but

other states are not bound to any rules

yet. They would only have to be aware of

the reaction of the attacked country.

Besides definitions of cyber warfare and

information warfare and other important

terms, an internationally agreed list of

computer crimes or rules should therefore

be established, maybe in combination

with an organization monitoring the

cyberspace, with large and serious

consequences against states

violating these rules. A proper framework

should evaluate the current Tallinn

Manual on the International Law

Applicable to Cyber Warfare and a

structural reform to any organizations

accountable for the provision of security

strategies to prevent fellons from

tampering with networking systems or

even countries using their technological

supremacy to manipulate organizations

for their own interest.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

1. Considering the continues

breaches in cybersecurity, what

legal definitions and spectrum

should cover terms such as cyber

warfare, cyber crimes, and cyber

attacks?

2. What responsibilities should be

shared among the international

community to prevent further

inter- state aggressions? Should

sanctions be considered in

committees such as the UNSC?

3. What measures should be taken to

counter, prevent, or decrease the

sophisticated cyber attacks that

are increasing constantly from

state to state?

4. How can security be increased

without violating the privacy of

citizens? What measures can be

taken to ensure the right to

personal privacy?

SOURCES

Ophardt JA. Cyber warfare and the crime

of aggression: The need for individual

accountability on tomorrow's battlefield.

Duke L. & Tech. Rev.. 2010:

NATO. (2018). Cyber defence. Retrieved

from https://www.nato.int/cps/en/

natohq/topics_78170.htm

Defence Cyber Command. (2018).

Retrieved from https://

english.defensie.nl/topics/cyber-

security/cyber-command

Cyber Warfare. (2018). Retrieved from

https://www.rand.org/topics/cyber-

warfare.html

Nicholson, A., Webber, S., Dyer, S., Patel,

T., & Janicke, H. (2012). SCADA security in

the light of Cyber-Warfare.Computers &

Security, 31(4), 418-436.

SUPPORT LINKS

https://jia.sipa.columbia.edu/

consequences-cyber-attacks

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/

Huaiqing_Wang/publication/

277422914_Cyber_warfare/links/

558bd6c208aebb816aeb83c7/Cyber-

warfare.pdf

Jensen, Eric Talbot. "Cyber warfare and

precautions against the effects of

attacks."

https://www.techopedia.com/

definition/13600/cyberwarfare

http://www.itpro.co.uk/security/28170/

what-is-cyber-warfare

TOPIC C: MONITORING OF CYBERSPACE

The cyberspace is a common name used

to refer to the virtual world created by the

users of technology and the internet. The

cyberspace provides the opportunity for

people to share data and information,

engage in dialogues and use the tools that

the internet provides to their benefit.

The term “monitoring of the cyberspace”

refers to the capacity a government,

group, person or organization has of

gathering and observing different types

cybernatical activities performed solely in

digital platforms. This implies that the

information within the device is

impossible to acquire through usual

mediums or is unavailable to the general

public.

As it was mentioned before, monitoring

the cyberspace can be performed by a

series of people, however, it is possible to

divide them into two categories,

monitoring done legally or done illegally.

In some cases governments have bylaws

and legislations that let them monitor

certain parts of the cyberspace in order to

stop cybercrime, protect national security

and obtain any useful information for

intelligence and federal agencies. There

are cases, however, in which governments

obtain information illegally because they

don't have the regulations needed or they

abstain to follow the restrictions and

specifications needed on the monitoring

of the cyberspace.

Companies and organizations can also

partially monitor certain parts of the

cyberspace in order to gather information,

this is known as corporate surveillance

and is used with marketing purposes or

given to other companies. The data

recorded includes the activity done

directly in application or website or they

get access to the users research history in

order to profile more suitable ads.

Companies can also sell the information

gathered about a client through their

application to other corporations, the

information is then used to better

understand personality. interests,

relations and likings so they can better

target their products into potential

clients. Companies also use it to protect

their intellectual property and monitor

employees performance and activity while

at work.

Finally, illegal groups and criminals can

also monitor the cyberspace in order to

perform crimes, expand their groups or to

perpetrate the information of a specific

government or person. Exploiting

vulnerabilities of a digital device or using

peoples inexperience, they use softwares

to access information of a computer or a

web page, they usually use an external

source (Such as a link) to enter into the

databases of computers and servers. This

kind of monitoring of cyberspace has

several purposes, to gain economical

assets by treating people that they will

share their private information and then

bribing them, to damage the image of

someone (generally a public figure) or to

obtain information from the government

or public institutions that can potentially

help them perform illegal activities with a

lower chance of being caught or in the

case of terrorist organizations to better

know certain details (usually about

security of places) that can help them

perpetuate attacks.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The internet is the most influential and

inclusive form of technology, it has

revolutionized the world and the way that

people communicate. It was first

developed in the 1960s in the United

States with the creation of computer

science laboratories that were able to

perform and send messages into another

computer, named “ARPANET”. As the

cyberspace notably increased its users

and consequently the amount of

information and data that is shared and

stored in the cyberspace, so did the need

for governments, companies and criminal

groups to monitor it.

It is possible to say that since the creation

of the internet different forms of

monitoring have been implemented, for

instance, when ARPANET was first

created, there was already interest of the

NSA, the national security agency and

other intelligence agencies of the United

States, at this point in time, what we

know today as the internet was still in

development and was not widely used, in

1978, an act known as “FISA” was passed

in the US which made it more difficult for

agencies to monitor and surveill the

information of people without a

justification or suspicion. Other countries

also started to monitor certain parts of

the cyberspace. From the year 2000 to the

actuality, governments all around the

world started to monitor a big portion of

the cyberspace. In the US, after the 9/11

incident occurred a program of mass

monitoring was implemented, in which

emails and messages send from certain

operators could be obtained by the

government.In the European Union from

2007-2014, the “Data retention directive”

forced to retain phone calls and messages

and give them to the government if

needed, it then became invalid as it

violated private life. Today, most

governments use several mechanisms to

control and monitor the cyberspace, some

do it legally and some illegally

Illegal groups have tried to monitor the

cyberspace since the very beginnings,

from intercepting emails and messages

when the internet was first created to

accessing important government

information stored in the cyberspace. At

first(1980-2000), the internet was partially

monitored by this groups to commit

bribery and spy on people's information.

However, in the recent years it has

become a tool to access information of

the government that can favor their

economic activities or they can monitor

the information of a certain group of

people.

CAUSES

Monitor criminal activities done through

the cyberspace and outside the

cyberspace:

Governments all around the world have

the necessity to protect their own people

and make sure that laws and regulations

are followed, as it is well known, the

cyberspace connects millions of people,

for this reason, all sorts of criminal

activities are currently observable in the

cyberspace. There are several examples of

how illegal actions occur in the internet,

stealing of credit cards, people posing as a

person or company, bribes and tools to

facilitate illegal actions in real life such as

trafficking of drugs, people or weapons.

As governments are in the necessity to

protect their legislations and assure the

well being of their people, they need to

monitor the cyberspace so they can track

down people or groups that are involved

in illegal activities and take the necessary

actions to stop them. It is also common

that the government monitors the

cyberspace of people that are suspected

to be involved in illegal activities in real

life so they can acquire possible evidence

of their involvement in a certain crime,

depending on the country it can be done

with or without an authorization of a

judge or authority.

Seek for national security:

As it was mentioned in the point before,

the cyberspace connects millions of

people, this includes terrorist groups or

people trying to perpetuate the security

of a country. Governments are really

interested on their national security, and

most of them see monitoring the

cyberspace as a tool to prevent attacks or

massacres that could vulnerate the

general well being of a country. An

example of monitoring caused by this

reason, would be the huge increase in

monitoring of the cyberspace that

occurred in The United States after 9/11,

in which federal law could access phone

call and information such as emails,

messages that was passed in certain

operators such as at&t.

Perception of how terrorism could be stop in the

us, shows people also agree monitoring in

cyberspace can address the issue

(Retrieved from

https://www.barna.com/research/american-views

-terrorism-15-years-911/)

Obtaimentent of profitable information

(Ilegal groups):

One of the causes for the cyberspace to

be monitored by criminal organization, is

that it lets them acquire information and

data which they can use to gain a

considerable amount economical

resources, by entering into financial data,

credit card information, passwords,

photos, messages and documents of

people they have a variety of crimes they

can perform. They can take money from

the credit cards, they can bribe the person

or they can sell information to external

buyers. At the other hand, criminal and

even terrorist organizations may try to

surveill/monitor government information

so they know important details such as

security points, if they are suspected of

any crimes, possible places where there is

few government security and other data

that is useful for them.

Obtainment of compromising

information of a targeted group, person

or organization:

In today's world, lots of the information

about a person, government, institution

or organization is contained in the

cyberspace, this information can have few

importance or it can being highly

compromising for the integrity, the image

or the well being. For this reason,

monitoring the cyberspace can be used to

directly affect someone or a group of

people. As compromising data is obtained

through different forms of monitoring, it

can be published or put into disclosure to

a wide range of people which can

potentially change public opinion on the

person or institution and in this way

deeply affect them. It is important to state

that this reason for monitoring includes

terrorist groups or even other

governments that want to cause harm by

damaging the image.

REPERCUSSIONS

Violation of privacy related laws and

rights:

Nearly all countries around the world

have agreed upon the importance of

people's privacy, to ensure people's

privacy are protected each country has a

set of laws and there are several

international agreements such as the 12

article of the human rights that also

pursue this purpose. People's privacy can

be deeply vulnerated because of

governmental monitoring of the

cyberspace which puts their private life

into full exposure for government officials

and intelligence agencies. In many

occasions countries violate their own

legislation and agreements by deliberately

monitoring the cyberspace.

Government and people's exposure:

As criminal groups and hackers access a

person's information, it is exposed to

economical and social consequences as

economical resources are taken from

them or intimate information is made

public which puts the person's well being

and intimacy at risk. As this groups of

people also target governments there are

also lots of consequences, its plans,

investigations and security flaws could be

perpetuated. Public figures can also have

their image deeply affected when

opposite governments or organizations

expose compromising information such as

the publishing of secret democrat

information in the past 2016

election,which was obtained by

monitoring secret information of the

political party which exposed several

emails send by democrat party figures

which ultimately affected Hillary Clinton's

campaign to presidency, it is unclear if the

information was gathered by the Russian

government but the fact that it was done

illegally is certain.

New methods for illegal groups to

monitor the cyberspace:

As the government improves its tactics of

monitoring the cyberspace and detecting

criminal activity, illegal groups are each

day developing new softwares and

technology that is each time more difficult

to monitor, forcing the government to

invert each time on better technology and

develop new ways to control what is

happening in the cyberspace.

CURRENT SITUATION

International treaties:

European Union data retention directive:

This agreement involving the European

Union was drafted in 2004 and was

ceased in 2014. It stated that all

telephone companies should keep record

of all telephone calls and messages for

upto a year and that they should be up to

the disposal of the national government

at any given time. After around 10 years

of function in the EU, the directive was

abolished in april of 2014 by the European

Court of justice, (the justice entity of the

European Union) after a case brought by a

Irish digital rights group against the Irish

authorities showed the law had certain

inconsistencies with the rights of privacy,

this led the court to review this law again

and then declaring it abolished, stating it

violated respect for private life and

protection of data.

The International Covenant on Civil and

Political Rights (article 17):

The international covenant on Civil and

political rights was a treaty drafted in

1966 in the General Assembly, which was

signed and ratified by almost every

country in the United Nations including

Russia, United States and the UK. Article

number 17 stated “ No one shall be

subjected to arbitrary or unlawful

interference with his privacy and

Everyone has the right to the protection

of the law against such interference or

attacks”, it is possible to state that this

agreement has not worked taking into

account lots of countries still use unlawful

methods of monitoring of cyberspace that

jeopardize privacy.

Countries agreeing to the covenant

(Retrieved from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Coven

ant_on_Civil_and_Political_Rights )

USA freedom act (2015):

After many claims that the Patriot

Act(important privacy law before the

freedom) was violating in several ways the

privacy of american people, the freedom

act was created, it states that the NSA still

has the capacity to monitor the

cyberspace in search of national security,

protection and law enforcement,

however, it puts certain restrictions to the

government, for example, if the NSA

wants to access a phones data it has to go

to a court named “FISA” with some

evidence of suspicion. Certain limitations

that it has shown are long amounts of

time before the NSA is given permission

which could lead the NSA to ignore the

court in cases of urgency.The law has

partially worked as monitoring the

cyberspace has led to some important

information and preventions taken for the

american government, however, there are

still many claims of privacy violations and

the number of valuable information

compared to useless data is too low.

Study cases:

The United States:

Although high monitoring of the

cyberspace from the United States and

companies within this territory has helped

with the prevention of some illegal

activities, and has partially helped to

protect national security, it has already

been used negatively, violating in this way

the very important right of privacy. An

example of this violations happened in

2016 during the presidential elections,

The Republican National Committee hired

an Internet research firm named Deep

Root Analytics with the purpose of helping

Donald Trump to win. The firm obtained

information of around 200 million

Americans in order to target political

preferences of each person. some of the

data gathered included phone numbers,

race, what people liked and their family

names, they were able to illegally obtain

this information through several

algorithms including one of the world's

largest social media platforms, Facebook.

After this kind of events, people in the

United States and all around the world are

concerned about the effects that a total

monitoring of the cyberspace from

governments and companies could

assemble on their rights and their privacy.

China:

China is one of the countries with the

most monitoring of its cyberspace around

the world, they nearly control all aspects

of the cyberspace of their people. Not

only they have major control, but they

have blocked several pages and

applications that are accessible in the rest

of the world such as whatsapp, facebook

and google. Meaning that chinese people

can only use local applications. China

takes advantage of monitoring only local

websites and applications as it is easier to

surveil and access information. The

chinese government can practically see

any action that is taken from a mobile

device, for example, china's largest

messenger app “wechat” provides all

messages, photos and media sent to the

government. The government not only

monitors information from the

cyberspace but control what information

is put online, since 2017 the government

requires all news to be posted to be

checked by editorial staff which clearly

belongs to the government. The chinese

government not only violates all rights of

privacy but also violates the right of free

speech through its extensive monitoring.

China's monitoring rate through the years, shown

with the blue line

(Retrieved from

https://www.economist.com/briefing/2016/12/17

/china-invents-the-digital-totalitarian-state )

GUIDING QUESTIONS

1. What are the national laws that

apply for the monitoring of the

cyberspace of your country?

2. What international treaties has

your delegation been part of? In

case it has not been part of any,

why not?

3. What are the types of cybercrime

that your country is most affected

of and what have been the social

and economical applications?

4. What have been the statements

and position of your country

towards the moderation and

control of the cyberspace? In case

they are very moderated, how has

this affected the privacy of the

people of your delegation?

ORIENTATION AND OBJECTIVE OF THE

COMMITTEE

We expect that the delegates come very

prepared regarding the position of their

delegation towards laws and regulations

on the monitoring of the internet within

their country, the justification their

country has given for monitoring, detail

on the involvement of illegal groups in the

monitoring of the cyberspace, we also

expect that the committee understands

the implications that monitoring the

cyberspace could have on the privacy of

its citizens. Solutions on how governments

can reduce criminal action and protect

their national sovereignty without

reaching their citizens private life should

be discussed and the implications of illegal

groups monitoring data about citizens and

compromising government information

should be taken into consideration. The

purpose of the committee is that the

delegations present are able to reach

agreements on how governments should

monitor the cyberspace, always taking

into consideration that the sovereignty of

every country needs to be respected and

that in order for the agreement to be

legitimate in needs to respect all other

types of rights such as the right of privacy.

SOURCES

-Timeline of NSA Domestic Spying

1791-2015. (2015). Retrieved from

https://www.eff.org/es/nsa-spying/timeli

ne

-Dreyfuss, E., & Newman, L. (2011). How

9/11 Completely Changed Surveillance in

U.S. Retrieved from

https://www.wired.com/2011/09/911-sur

veillance/

-Storage, C. (2019). What is the USA

FREEDOM Act? What's So Free About It?.

Retrieved from

https://www.cloudwards.net/freedom-act

/

-Media Censorship in China. (2017).

Retrieved from

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/media

-censorship-china

SUPPORT LINKS

-https://www.ohchr.org/en/issues/digital

age/pages/digitalageindex.aspx -

https://theintercept.com/2014/10/15/un-

investigator-report-condemns-mass-su

rveillance/

-https://www.techopedia.com/definition/

31668/network-surveillance -

https://policyreview.info/articles/news/n

ew-un-resolution-right-privacy-digital-

age-crucial-and-timely/436 -

https://www.techopedia.com/definition/

24954/internet-privacy