American Security Today September Digital Magazine September 2016 | Page 18

Volume 7
Neville-Rolfe, spoke in early July at the Privacy
Laws & Business Annual Conference on Data Protection. She admitted that not even she knows how
the impending cybersecurity and data protection
regulations will turn out. However, she did note that
protecting data is not just an IT issue, but a personal issue. Data is information about people and
protecting that data is an important responsibility.
According to Neville-Rolfe, one of the many challenges with BREXIT and the EU GDPR is that whatever they figure out, the negotiations with the two
entities, the UK and EU, will have to consider that
a large portion of UK businesses are doing business with the EU and differing policies will make
conducting business across borders difficult, if they
must adhere to very different data protection policies.
The issue with the current isolationist trend, which
is not only evident with BREXIT, but there is speculation as to whether other EU countries will follow
suit. France, Germany, Austria, Italy and Sweden
have all expressed interest from one party or another in leaving the EU. There is also the likelihood
that the United States could become more isolated,
should Trump be elected president. And with his recent, almost blatant, invitation for Russia to continue to release hacked Democratic National Committee files, there is little hope for smart cybersecurity
policies under Trump.

Theresa May, UK Prime Minister

UK’s Prime Minister, Theresa May, recently completed a tour of EU capitals in order to find some
clarity on how the UK will negotiate many policies, including security of Britain’s citizens in the

September 2016 Edition
EU. However, according to the Guardian’s BREXIT
Weekly Briefing this past Tuesday, May’s tour has
failed to bring any clarity, and possibly added more
questions as to how and when the exit will take
place, possibly taking years to complete.
Isolationism is not the way to create smart policies
for the Internet and the data that travels all over the
world in seconds. There are no borders where cybersecurity and data protection are concerned. In
the future, wars will be fought in cyberspace, not on
the battle ground, so it is imperative that countries
around the world work with one another to ensure
data is protected wherever it travels. This will not
be an easy feat, particularly if countries continue to
isolate themselves.
The US is working with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which consists of Saudi Arabia, Qatar,
the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Kuwait
and Oman, to promote responsible state behavior
in cyberspace and share information that could be
mutually beneficial to each of the countries involved.
In April of this year, the White House released a
Fact Sheet about the entity formed, the U.S.-Gulf
Cooperation Council Strategic Partnership, and
its goals. Within these goals, for Peacetime Cyber Norms, the release states, “Acknowledging the
need for responsible state behavior in cyberspace,
leaders stated their support for key concepts that
will promote an environment of global cyber stability. These include the affirmation of the applicability
of international law to state conduct in cyberspace
and of voluntary norms of responsible state behavior in peacetime previously affirmed by leaders of
the G-20.” This is definitely a step in the right direction.
Allowing international law to intervene could be
beneficial to global cybersecurity policy. Although,
some countries choose not to recognize international law. Should the isolationist movement continue, as it is projected to do, one way countries
can protect its citizens is to teach the public, those
that make up all of the data, how to protect themselves. Teach businesses how protecting data also
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