Cybersecurity as a Governance Challenge: The Case of SWIFT

• In Event: ICA Interactive Paper/Poster Session II
  In Interactive Poster Session: Communication Law and Policy Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

The increasingly popular multi-stakeholder process gives voice to a wider array on non-governmental actors. This paper focuses on the fundamentals of the cybersecurity challenge for commerce. It examines one important effort to build a trusted digital environment that is taking place within The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. SWIFT is an unusual multi-stakeholder organization (MSO), a society of international financial institutions that secures financial transfers across borders. The case of SWIFT helps demonstrate what is required for an international governance regime to succeed in a complex, technologically dynamic space. Any regime is more likely to succeed if it addresses threshold challenges for creating a core club, authoritative minimum international baselines, and partial convergence of national policies. Robust regimes increasingly rely on MSOs that are credibly expert, transparent to important stakeholders, and accountable to governments.

Author

• Jonathan David Aronson, U of Southern California (USC)