VietNamNet Bridge – Those who initiated the Ethics Code of Conduct for Cyber Peace and Security desire to build a healthy Internet environment so that the Internet can promote good and restrict bad things.

The Boston Global Forum (BGF) last September announced the first-ever Ethics Code of Conduct for Cyber Peace and Security (ECCC).

The ECCC is fairly comprehensive, which can be applied to all netizens, from IT engineers to policy makers, government leaders, entrepreneurs, educators, and those who have influence over society.

The ECCC was developed by a group of reputable scholars in the US, including Michael Dukakis, Co-Founder, and Chairman of Boston Global Forum, former governor of Massachusetts, Nguyen Anh Tuan, Co-Founder and CEO of Boston Global Forum, Chair of International Committee for UNESCO-UCLA Chair in Global Citizenship Education Program, Professor Thomas Patterson, Co-Founder and Member of Board of Directors at Boston Global Forum, and Harvard Kennedy School’s Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press, Professor John Quelch, Co-Founder and Member of Board of Directors, at Boston Global Forum, and Harvard Business School’s Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration and Professor Carlos Alberto Torres, Member of Board of Thinkers, Boston Global Forum and Chair of UNESCO-UCLA in Global Citizenship Education.

One year ago, The New York Times posted a moving story of a mother about her 13-year-old child with autism who talked with Iphone’s Siri software every day. The boy regarded Siri as his best friend.

That story reveals a different perspective of the global revolution in information technology and Internet.

We can say the Internet is one of the few great inventions of mankind. At first, it was just a means of electronic communication with the simple feature of information transfer, but now it has been present in every moment in the life of every person on the globe.

With each passing second, the role of the Internet is greater and expresses incalculable complexity. It is a place full of good big things and also harbors potentially terrible evils.

The Internet opens up the knowledge treasure to people. It has helped remove barriers between space and time, between man and man… Sitting at one place with Internet connection, people still know what is happening in other countries. The Internet turns people into global citizens.

The widespread use of the Internet is creating the biggest social, cultural and political changes culture in the history of the mankind.

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt wrote in his book that in the past and the present, the possibility to access information and new media channels from the Internet brings about new opportunities for individuals to be able to participate in social and political issues, forcing the power holders to be more responsible. The people havevgreater autonomy in their personal lives.

However, Internet also creates high risks. The implications of a free space on the Internet is the matter of network security, which challenges all nations.

The websites full of hatred mastered by terrorist organizations become more dangerous and complicated, not to mention the effect of the freedom of cyberspace, which enables individuals to express their opinions arbitrarily or insult, smear others, diffuse fake information...

The armed wars between nations can be seen, but the war on the Internet is the latent war. Recently, US President Obama threatened to sanction China for economic espionage in cyberspace made by Chinese hackers to steal secrets and intellectual property of American businesses.The issue became a major thorn in the side of U.S.-China relations last year.

"This isn’t a mild irritation. It’s an economic and national security concern to the United States. It puts enormous strain on our bilateral relationship and it is a critical factor in determining the future trajectory of U.S.-China ties," American National Security Advisor Susan Rice said.

An indisputable fact is networking benefiting terrorists and violent extremists. Experts predict that terrorist activities in the future will include physical and virtual aspects, from recruiting to implementation. It would be horrible if one of these terrorist groups has nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. We will be extremely vulnerable to attack by cyberterrorism organizations in different forms.

Looking to the future full of promise and challenge, we will see a new and better world in which information technology and the Internet will be part of all these challenges and solutions of the state, citizens and businesses. The rules and standards of ethics and conduct on the Internet will contribute to creating a world of wisdom, kindness and more beauty.

The ECCC Version 1.0 was made public on September 23th 2015. It was initiated by highly prestigious people and was discussed at the conference on September 25th at Harvard University, with the attendance of well-known people such as Michael Dukakis, Co-Founder, and Chairman of Boston Global Forum, former governor of Massachusetts, Nguyen Anh Tuan, Co-Founder and CEO of Boston Global Forum, Chair of International Committee for UNESCO-UCLA Chair in Global Citizenship Education Program, some people on the list of 100 leading thinkers in the world, and leaders of major television channels like ABC News ...

For detailed information about the ECCC, visit bostonglobalforum.org.

Lan Anh