Positions of BRICS Member States in the UN Negotiationson International Information Security (IIS) and the Issueof Realizing BRICSʼs Potential in Advancing the IIS Agenda

In the context of digitalisation, the issue of ensuring the security of individuals and the state from threats associated with theunlawful use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has become particularly important. Despite measurestaken at both international and national levels aimed at preventing and mitigating the consequences of incidents involvingthe malicious use of ICTs – as well as the dissemination of skills and practices to protect against digital threats amongindividual businesses and citizens – the number of recorded cyber incidents and the associated costs continue to grow eachyear. Increasingly, representatives of government authorities and the academic community are voicing concerns about ICTsʼpotential for exerting destructive informational and psychological influence, as well as the risk of militarising ICTs andcyberspace. An important characteristic of modern digital threats is their ability to spread almost instantaneously and on alarge scale, elevating them to the level of global threats and requiring appropriate measures in response. Russia is one of the key players in the emerging international regime for information security. Russia took the initiativeto launch multilateral negotiations on information security under the auspices of the United Nations and successfullyconveys its perspective on IIS (international information security) in global governance institutions, where it wields significantinfluence—particularly within the BRICS international grouping. In light of the expansion of BRICS membership, theissue of comparing the member statesʼ priorities in the area of IIS has become especially relevant. Based on the view of BRICSʼs position in the global governance system of IIS challenges as being one of the key informalnegotiating platforms, the author has set the following research objective: to formulate a set of recommendations aimedat making fuller use of the negotiation potential of an expanded BRICS in the process of shaping the international regime forinformation security. In the course of preparing this article, the author conducted a qualitative analysis of statements madeby representatives of BRICS member states during meetings of the UN Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) from 2021 to2025, which to date has been the most representative negotiating platform for IIS issues. Based on the results of this analysis,the convergent and divergent positions of BRIC S members regarding the key aspects of the IIS discussion were identified.These conclusions are supplemented by an examination of the positions of BRICS member states on issues related to theadoption of a UN Convention on Cybercrime. This article also presents the results of a qualitative retrospective analysis of collective BRICS decisions on IIS issues.Decisions by BRICS leaders, adopted by consensus and recorded in final declarations, have been classified according to thethematic structure of the OEWG negotiations, enabling the author to determine the most in-demand and most challengingareas of cooperation within the groupingʼs IIS agenda. The recommendations developed as part of this study are provided in the conclusion of the present work