Responding to the Call for a Digital Geneva Convention: An Open Letter to Brad Smith and the Technology Community

Description

In February 2017, Brad Smith, President of Microsoft, electrified the technology community with a speech to the RSA Conference calling for a “Digital Geneva Convention” to stem the flow of State cyber operations that have become endemic. Despite good intentions, Smith’s call for a Digital Geneva Convention is based, in part, on a misunderstanding of the state of international law as it applies to cyber. In fact, there already exists a robustly developed set of international law norms, although enforcement of these norms remains problematic. In addition, Smith’s call for a Digital Geneva Convention overlooks the need for States to agree to adopt such a treaty. Despite these limitations, tech sector involvement in the international law process has the potential to develop the law in a positive direction and should be encouraged. However, such tech sector involvement requires an appreciation for international law and the current state of the law as it applies to cyber operations. With this foundation, the tech sector will be able to properly engage in the international law process to develop the law applicable to cyber operations to address their concerns.