IGF 2025 Lightning Talk #72 Borderless internet- incompatible with national jurisdiction

The Internet was from the start in the 1970s designed to be borderless because its original purpose was to be a resilient intercontinental military communication network. As the Internet opened for global commercial and other government applications it also attracted criminals and nation state threat actors. This is when the borderless nature of the Internet became a vulnerability, because the lack of borders and national jurisdiction enable criminals and threat actors to evade law enforcement. In 2025 the amount of cybercrime can be characterized as a rapidly growing global crisis. This triggers the discussion on effective ways to fight cybercrime. One approach would be to implement some form of national borders on the Internet, which is the approach taken by e.g. China North Korea and Russia. In Western countries, there has so far been little political will to implement technical border controls on the Internet. Instead, the Western world focuses on building strong cyber defenses around computer networks of organizations, analogous to walled cities in medieval times. The proposed UN convention on cybercrime is a result of the realisation that cybercrime is a threat to the global economy, and that something needs to be done. Still, it is important that countries have a discussion on implementing technical controls for national borders on the Internet. This discussion will be increasingly relevant should the UN convention fail to be ratified or fail to have an impact, and the rate of cyberattacks and cybercrime keeps increasing.

This session will have all presentators physically at place, and allow for questions to be sent online, with a digital moderator to assist the moderator in attendance in Norway. In order for the digital audience to be able to participate on a level with the physical attendees, the moderator will encourage the digital attendees to participate by asking questions in a chat during the session. The physical attentees will also get that message, in order for the discussion to provide insights and dialogue. The time table for this slot is maximum 30 minutes, not allowing tome for an extended QA. We will therefore allow 5 minutes towards the end for questions online and in attendance.The moderator will in the introduction encourage questions to be voiced at the end of session, and will allow for questions by raising the arm for physical attendees, and throug the digital moderator, allow for digital attendees to raise their hand through Zoom-features.