17.06.2025
International Cooperation in Cyber Security: Challenges, and Strategies of Incident Response
1. Introduction
In today’s world where everything is interconnected via the internet, cyber security has become a key issue for global stability. The effects of cyberattacks are no longer confined to a single country; such attacks affect people, companies, and governments throughout the world. However, different legislations, lack of trust between countries, and different rules often make combating those threats difficult.
Key statement: international cooperation in cybersecurity is required to com-bat global digital threats, but this cooperation faces problems such as different legislation and lack of trust between countries. These problems need to be handled via joint strategies.
2. The importance of CSIRT and international cooperation
Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRT) play an important role in protecting key infrastructure and reducing the risks of cyberattacks. Their task is detecting, preventing, and responding to cyberattacks on telecommunications, banks, and the energy sector. However, such attacks are often launched fr om other countries, and CSIRT’s effectiveness and efficiency depend on cooperation between countries.
There are international treaties, such as the 2001 Budapest Convention on Cybercrime. It helps countries harmonize their legislation and facilitates cooper-ation. However, some large countries are not members of this convention, which reduces its effectiveness. Additionally, different countries have different classifica¬tions of cybercrimes, which complicates joint investigations.
3. Key infrastructure in incident response: SOC and NOC
Security Operations Centers (SOC) and Network Operations Centers (NOC) help CSIRT via real-time monitoring and rapid incident response.
• SOC (Security Operations Center): Detect threats and coordinate defense.
• NOC (Network Operations Center): monitors network infrastructure and works together with SOC to protect against attacks, for instance, DDoS attacks.
International cooperation between these centers is very important, but often hindered by restrictions in exchanging information and by different communications protocols.
4. A successful cooperation case: EMOTET disrupted
The disruption of EMOTET, one of the world’s most dangerous botnets, constituted a case of successful international cooperation. EMOTET was detected in 2014 as a banking Trojan. It spread via emails with infected attachments that tricked users into enabling macros and launching the malware. Once installed, EMOTET allowed criminals to spread other malware.
In January 2021, the authorities in several countries, including the Nether-lands, Germany, and the UK together with Europol and Eurojust, conducted an operation to eliminate EMOTET’s infrastructure. This operation demonstrated that international cooperation could be effective in combating cybercrime.
5. Cases of absence of cooperation and their consequences
Despite cases of successful cooperation, there are also instances of grave con-sequences resulting from the absence of international coordination. For instance, the 2017 WannaCry ransomwere attack affected hundreds of thousands of computers in over 150 countries. In the absence of a rapid global response, the malware spread like wildfire. This case demonstrates the importance of bolstering mecha-nisms for rapid response and real-time information exchange.
6. Artificial Intelligence and its role in cyber security
Artificial Intelligence (AI) assists in enhancing cybersecurity by making it pos¬sible to rapidly detect threats via big data analysis. However, cybercriminals also use AI to make their attacks more dangerous, for instance, they automate attacks and create more complex malware.
Internationally, AI can facilitate exchanging information on threats, but it requires common standards of its secure, safe, and ethical use.
7. Public Private Partnership initiatives
In addition to intergovernmental cooperation, interaction with the private sector is also important. Tech companies, cloud services providers, and digital plat-forms have both data and instruments that can help detect and prevent attacks. For instance, the Cyber Threat Alliance (CTA) initiative allows companies to exchange information on threats in real-time, which demonstrates that effective and efficient cooperation should not be limited to public organizations only.
8. The role of cyber diplomacy
Cyber diplomacy is becoming an important instrument in international cyber security cooperation. International organizations such as the UN promote discus-sions of international rules of conduct in cyber security with a view to reducing conflicts prompted by state attacks or by government-supported groups. Using bilateral and multilateral treaties, diplomacy could facilitate information exchange, technical support, and creation of joint mechanisms for responding to major inci-dents.
9. Metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPI)
Assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of international cooperation in cyber security requires deciding on metrics and indicators. Some key KPI include:
• Mean Time To Detect and Mean Time To Respond (MTTD and MTTR) to cross-border incidents.
• Number of incidents CSIRT dealt with jointly, and the time it took to handle these incidents.
• The degree of automating the exchange of information on threats via such platforms as MISP.
• Assessing CSIRT maturity according to such standards as the FIRST CSIRT Services Framework.
10. Fragmentation in cyber space management
One of the key problems in international cyber security cooperation is fragmented cyber space management. Unlike other international security areas, cyber security does not have a single management system with clear rules for all countries. Some countries support an open and decentralized internet, while others want a greater degree of control over the digital infrastructure. It makes it more difficult to develop solid international treaties and creates gray areas wh ere criminals can act with impunity.
Another problem lies in non-harmonized cyber security legislation. Every country has its own laws, which could create conflicts in investigating cross-border incidents. Additionally, lack of common standards in communications proto¬cols and lack of trust between states could hinder effective response. Cultural and linguistic differences could also hamper coordination at critical moments. These problems demonstrate the need for a more integrated and cooperative approach.
11. Cybercrime and the absence of a transnational jurisdiction
Cyber criminals frequently take advantage of legislative differences between countries to avoid punishment. An attack could be launched fr om a country with more lenient legislation and affect institutions in another country that has no mechanisms for requesting legal assistance. Without extradition treaties or prompt exchange of judicial information, many crimes go unpunished. The absence of an effective transnational jurisdiction allows cyber criminals to continue their opera-tions, which further stresses the need to harmonize legislation and bolster cooper-ation between law enforcement agencies.
12. Proposals on improving international cooperation
To improve cooperation in cyber security, we need to devise joint response protocols that would allow countries to respond to incidents in a coordinated man-ner. Introducing secure platforms to exchange information between CSIRT, SOC, and NOC will facilitate detecting and preventing threats. Additionally, harmonizing international laws will help remove barriers that hamper cooperation and will accelerate interactions between different organizations.
Another important strategy consists in holding international cyber security drills intended to improve preparedness and coordination between response teams. Training cyber security experts and deciding on metrics for assessing coop¬eration effectiveness and efficiency will help optimize joint efforts. Such initiatives as UNAM-CERT in Mexico and RU-CERT in Russia demonstrated that coopera¬tion between academic, public, and private organizations is a key element in creating a more stable global cyber security ecosystem.
13. Conclusion
International cooperation in cyber security is a must in the digital world wh ere threats keep developing. Together with SOC and NOC, CSIRT should bolster their cooperation strategies, use new technologies, and share best practices to improve incident response. Only trust and joint work allow to counteract complex cyberattacks effectively.
UNAM-CERT and RU-CERT demonstrated the value of international coop-eration in information security. UNAM-CERT played an important role in protecting Mexico’s digital infrastructure, while RU-CERT helped protect networks in Russia via cooperation with international organizations. These initiatives demonstrate the importance of bolstering global cooperation with a view to creating a more secure and safe digital environment.
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