Pakistan urges int’l cybersecurity deal

A senior Pakistani diplomat has called for developing a legally-binding international instrument to address growing “malicious activities” in cyberspace, such as the involvement of an Indian network running a vicious disinformation campaign against Pakistan that a European monitoring group uncovered some five years ago.

“This was a systematic and state-led campaign carried out to spread disinformation, and misuse the UN as well as European institutions with the aim of maligning Pakistan,” Ambassador Munir Akram told a United Nations Security Council high-level debate on evolving threats in cyberspace, convened by South Korea, the 15-member body’s president for June.

Stressing that several countries, including Pakistan, are victims of disinformation, the Pakistani envoy highlighted the 2019 and 2020 reports from the EU DisinfoLab, a Brussels-based NGO, regarding anti-Pakistan propaganda and cyberwarfare against Pakistan involving more than 10 so-called non-governmental organizations fraudulently accredited to the UN Human Rights Council; more than 750 fake media outlets and 550 fake websites even resurrecting dead people.