Having claimed to be hacked on the eve of the presidential elections in 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the “Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace,” which aims to create a unified framework to guarantee internet security.

At the Unesco’s (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Internet Governance Forum in Paris held on Monday, the government aims “to relaunch negotiations on a ‘code of good conduct’ which have stalled since last year,” according to the report of Agence France Presse.

The high-profile data breaches and leaked emails of celebrities and government officials, as well as the level of sophistication hackers exhibit, are just a few of the growing concerns in cyberspace. The European Union has released its own General Data Protection Regulations or GDPR to ensure that companies will comply with the union’s data safety standards.

“The growth in cybercrime and malicious activity can also endanger both our private data and certain critical infrastructures,” according to the text released by the French government. “In order to respect people’s rights and protect them online as they do in the physical world, States must work together, but also collaborate with private-sector partners, the world of research and civil society.”

The “Paris Call” aims to increase prevention against and resilience to malicious online activity; protect the accessibility and integrity of the Internet; cooperate in order to prevent interference in electoral processes; work together to combat intellectual property violations via the internet; prevent the proliferation of malicious online programmes and techniques; improve the security of digital products and services as well as everybody’s “cyber hygiene”; clamp down on online mercenary activities and offensive action by non-state actors; work together to strengthen the relevant international standards.

The three components of Paris Digital Week include “New Technologies” of the Paris Peace Forum; GovTech Summit, focusing on the digital transformation of States and democracies; and The Internet Governance Forum, under the title “Internet of Trust.”

“Nearly one billion people were victims of cyber attacks in 2017 alone mainly caused by WannaCry and NotPetya,” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president and chief legal officer, told reporters in Paris.

The alleged involvement of governments in cyber attacks has fueled the call for a more secure internet and the tightening of data security regulations.

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