Putin-Biden cybersecurity talk may mark end of ‘wild west’ era in cyberspace

Washington, Jun 16 (Sputnik), Ekaterina Chukaeva The agreement between Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden to start consultations on cybersecurity could be an important step to improve global safety, and lead to guidelines in the cybersector which, up to now, remains unregulated, Chuck Easttom, an American computer scientist specializing in cybersecurity told Sputnik.
On Wednesday, Vladimir Putin said that he agreed with Joe Biden to start consultations on cybersecurity while speaking at a press conference following the talks with Biden at Geneva’s Villa La Grange. He added cybersecurity is extremely important for the whole world as well as for Russia and the US.
“Having the world’s two most powerful nations begin discussing some sort of guidelines for cyber issues could begin to tame what is currently a ‘wild west’ atmosphere in cyberspace. This could definitely improve global safety by possible reducing nation state attacks on infrastructure,” Easttom who is a Distinguished Speaker of the Association for Computing Machinery and a Distinguished Visitor of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, said.
It would be an advantage for all parties to have “some sort of cyber version of a Geneva convention,” Easttom said, adding, however, that this is just a beginning and it is not clear how fruitful further talks would be.
“However, this could be an important first step. While traditional warfare has guidelines, such as the Geneva convention, there are no guidelines in cyberspace,” he said.
The issue of cybersecurity has been one of the key issues to discuss at the summit amid several high-profile hacking attacks against US infrastructure. While some claimed Russian involvement, Moscow has repeatedly denied all the accusations.