Vulnerability Disclosure: Guiding Governments from Norm to Action

In an era of rapidly evolving and complex IT infrastructures, the need to address vulnerabilities has become essential for safeguarding international peace and security. Recognizing this, UN member states agreed in 2015 on norm (j) of the framework for responsible state behavior, which encourages states to support responsible vulnerability reporting. This event discussed practical steps for translating this commitment into action, as highlighted in the newly launched report by interface: “Vulnerability Disclosure: Guiding Governments from Norm to Action,” supported by the German Federal Foreign Office.

This side event brought together representatives of UN member states as well as non-government representatives from academia, civil society and the private sector for an interactive panel discussion to explore ways CVD can be implemented both at a national and cooperative multilateral level. The side event explored the following guiding questions, among others:

Which concrete actions has your government taken or plans to take towards norm (j) implementation? What, if any, challenges have you encountered?

For which of these actions has your country identified the potential for international cooperation and/or capacity-building, both at the UN or regional or sub regional level?

How have you shared your government's efforts towards implementation with other states and what other channels could be explored to that end?

Looking ahead, how could the future UN permanent action-oriented mechanism on ICT security help guide member states in the implementation of norm (j) and how?

The Permanent Mission of Germany jointly with the Center for Cybersecurity and Law and interface held this event at the German House in New York.