The White House on Tuesday reiterated the United States’ alignment with India on issues related to cybersecurity, saying the two agreed on key principles prohibiting state-backed cyberattacks against other countries.
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The statement came in a press release following an afternoon meeting at the White House between President Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The session focused on the strategic partnership between the countries. Topics included nuclear nonproliferation and security in the Asia-Pacific region.
The allies “committed to enhance cyber collaboration on critical infrastructure, cybercrime, and malicious cyber activity by state and non-state actors, capacity building, and cybersecurity research and development,” according to the release.
The release added that the countries were also engaged on issues related to ICANN, the international regulatory authority responsible for administrative functions on the Internet. The U.S. is set to cede the last vestiges of control over the net to ICANN before the end of the year.
The U.S. has been working to enhance its partnership with India in cyberspace since 2012, when the two held their first “cyber dialogue” aimed at achieving agreement on key issues. The countries are set to hold the fifth dialogue in Delhi this year.
Both countries have faced similar issues from an international perspective, and China has initiated cyberattacks against both. Hackers backed by the Chinese government were linked to a breach of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management last year as well as networks belonging to the Indian government.
