UN regulation of Internet bad idea, Cyber Command chief says

The commander of the U.S. Cyber Command said Oct. 20 that he opposes giving the United Nations the authority to regulate the Internet as part of an effort proposed by some nations to establish an international code of conduct for information security, the Washington Times reports.

When asked whether the United Nations should be empowered with a regulation role as proposed to the U.N. General Assembly by Russia, China and two other nations, Army Gen. Keith Alexander said, "No, I’m not for regulating per se….I’m not into that portion of regulating as you espouse.” He made the comments at the Information Systems Security Association International Conference in Baltimore.

The resolution submitted Sept. 14 by those nations calls for the U.N. to establish a framework that would proscribe international norms and rules to guide the behavior of states in the information space.