A publication from the Associated Press he says that the International Committee of the Red Cross announced Thursday that it is seeking support for the creation of a "Red Cross/Red Crescent digital badge" that would make it clear to military and other hackers that they have entered the computer systems of medical facilities or Red Cross offices.
The Geneva-based humanitarian organization said it was calling on governments, companies, friends of the Red Cross and Red Crescent and IT experts to join forces to develop "concrete ways to protect medical and humanitarian services from digital harm during duration of armed conflicts".
For more than 150 years, symbols such as the Red Cross have been used to make it clear that "in times of armed conflict, those who wear the red cross or the facilities and objects bearing them should be protected from harm".
The same obligation should apply online, the agency said, noting that hacking operations in times of conflict are likely to increase as more hackers develop their capabilities in cyberspace.
The organization said that for the proposed "digital emblem" to become a reality, nations around the world would have to agree on its use and make it part of international humanitarian law alongside other existing humanitarian insignia. He hopes the emblem will identify computer systems as belonging to protected facilities just as a red cross or crescent on a hospital roof does in the real world.
"The International Committee of the Red Cross said it has identified three technical possibilities: a DNS-based badge that would use a special tag to link it to a domain name, an IP-based badge and an ADEM badge or a certified digital emblem with a system that will use certificate chains for token protection”.
