In response to the growing threat from cyberattacks, the UK is offering a £15 million package of assistance to Commonwealth nations over the next three years.
The foreign minister wants to make Commonwealth members more resilient to evolving cyberthreats so that they can better defend themselves.
With 87 percent of organizations having experienced an attempt to exploit their existing weaknesses in cyberspace, cyber is one of the top security challenges that Commonwealth countries currently face.
A larger Commonwealth, united behind its shared values, is a crucial counterweight to the rising threat of malicious activity, the Foreign Secretary will tell foreign ministers at a meeting today at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Rwanda.
She will assert that the Commonwealth can and should play a crucial role in opposing authoritarian regimes and expanding freedoms all around the world, alongside organizations like the G7 and NATO.
The UK’s updated cyber assistance program for the Commonwealth will share experience in cyber deterrence, develop insights into threats, assess capabilities, and govern effectively to enable quick responses.
Additionally, it will strengthen the voices of smaller nations so that we may all speak with one voice in support of our shared principles of sovereignty, democracy, and good online governance.
Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, said:
The Commonwealth is a crucial and growing coalition unified by values of democracy, human rights, and sovereignty in a geopolitically more complex world.
In order to defend our freedoms from despotic governments that threaten them, the Commonwealth is acting jointly to strengthen our security and resilience, especially online.
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia serves as a clear reminder to us all that our security and sovereignty are increasingly at risk both globally and online.
Every Commonwealth member state’s influence in crucial international debates on cyber governance will be maximized thanks to the increased UK investment.
It will support the voices of smaller nations to make sure that we can all speak with one voice in support of our shared ideals of sovereignty, democracy, and good cyberspace governance.
Smaller states will be given more influence through customized projects with Commonwealth nations, a network for Commonwealth cyber governance, increased numbers of in-country cyber attachés, and UN Women in Cyber Fellows.
Together, they will make it more difficult for hostile states to interfere in private online affairs throughout the Commonwealth.
With the UK currently turning up the chairing duty to Rwanda, the most recent CHOGM was held in the UK in 2018.