The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has proposed a digital emblem to mark its digital infrastructure and protect it from cyberattacks such as ransomwareduring the war.
The application (opens in a new tab) was unveiled as part of a new humanitarian research report on its digitization as attacks such as ransomware become increasingly common in modern conflicts.
In a report entitled “Digitization of the Red Cross, Red Crescent and Red Crystal emblems (opens in a new tab)The IRC says that in the same way that a red cross symbol marks humanitarian volunteers for protection on a physical battlefield, a digital emblem would identify protected objects.
Digital Fog of War
The committee also claims that “cyber operators” suggested that a digital emblem would break through the “fog of digital warfare”.
To this end, the ICRC has identified several ways to implement the digital emblem. AND DNS-emblem-based would combine it with a human-readable domain name, while an IP-based emblem would use the an-part IP address to identify the protected infrastructure as well as messages sent over the network.
It has also been suggested that an “ADEM” (Authenticated Digital Emblem) system could use certificates that are authenticated by actors and can be transferred “over various internet protocols”.
And while the Red Cross digital emblem is currently only a proposal, the ICRC says it is working with it Cyber Trust Center (opens in a new tab)Johns Hopkins University and ITMO University of Saint Petersburg to study these implementations.
The ICRC also wants IT experts to develop concrete ways to protect medical and humanitarian services from digital harm during armed conflicts.” He says he, along with the Australian Red Cross, consulted cybersecurity firms, government officials, humanitarian experts and others for their views.
“With the digitization of society, cyber operations have become a reality of armed conflicts,” said Robert Mardini, Director General of the ICRC.
“Our mandate to protect the lives and dignity of victims of armed conflict requires us to understand how these operations can cause harm. The “Digital Emblem” is a concrete step towards protecting essential medical infrastructure and the ICRC in the digital world.”