ISACA Journal - 2016 Volume 6

The G7 Ise-Shima Leaders’
Declaration

The formal communiqué of the meeting5 contains an introductory paragraph under the heading of Cyber. It is essentially a declaration of principles and contains the following statement: “We strongly support an accessible, open, interoperable, reliable and secure cyberspace as one essential foundation for economic growth and prosperity.” Like many readers of this journal, I have spent my entire career trying to build accessible, open, interoperable, reliable and secure information systems, so I found this acknowledgment by world leaders to be especially gratifying.

The fact that this issue reached the G7 agenda6 is recognition that cyberspace is not secure; it is insecure enough that their individual and collective interests are imperiled. To put this in context, the other topics addressed in the communiqué are the world economy, migration and refugees, trade, infrastructure, health, women, anticorruption, climate, and energy. Cyber security, as a global concern, has reached quite a high level indeed.

State Behavior

The expanded section of the communiqué7 elaborates
on the theme and contains the following sentence:
We commit to promote a strategic framework
of international cyber stability consisting of
the applicability of existing international law to
state behavior in cyberspace, the promotion of

voluntary norms of responsible state behavior during peacetime, and the development and the implementation of practical cyber confidence building measures between states. 8

I have italicized the phrase in the quote because it is so laden with meaning. It calls for “norms,” which I understand to mean standards. I have previously bemoaned the lack of standards for cyber security, 9 so I found this call to be very heartening. These norms will necessarily be “voluntary” because there is no international body to enforce them. But, much as with other supranational declarations

securityinformation
matters The G7 and Cyber Security

Do you have something to say about this article? Visit the Journal pages of the ISACA® web site ( www.isaca. org/journal), find the article and click on the Comments link to share your thoughts.

Steven J. Ross, CISA, CISSP, MBCP

Is executive principal of Risk Masters International LLC. Ross has been writing one of the Journal’s most popular columns since 1998. He can be reached at stross@riskmastersintl.com.

I first learned the term MEGO in a column by the great conservative pundit, William Safire. 1 In his Safire’s Political Dictionary, 2 he defines the term as an acronym for “my eyes glaze over” and “something that is undeniably important and paralyzingly dull.” 3 There are few topics so MEGO as G7 meetings, the gatherings of the leaders of the world’s industrialized democracies. You know they happen; you know they are important. But can you name all seven G7 nations,4 much less their leaders? Do you have any idea what they talk about or accomplish?

With this stirring introduction, your eyes are probably starting to mist and you have your hand on the corner of the page, about to turn. Please stay awhile for a MEGO you should know about. In May 2016, the G7 leaders met in Ise-Shima, Japan, and produced a document that has real meaning for all of us who care about cyber security.