The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the digitalisation and remote processing of arbitration proceedings. Vicente Moret, Íñigo Rodríguez-Sastre and Elena Sevila analyse the new regulations and protocols in this new context at Wolters Kluwer.

The cybersecurity of information, networks, systems and data has become a global concern that transversally affects all economic or legal activities, and in general, societies and individuals in their most relevant or everyday activities. Attacks and incidents related to the cybersecurity of networks and systems are a global concern not only because of the volume and importance they are reaching, but also because of the speed at which they are increasing year after year. According to Accenture, the direct and indirect costs of cybercrime worldwide for the period 2019-2023 are estimated to reach $5.2 trillion. According to McAfee, by 2021 the cost of cybercrime will increase by 50% over the 2018 total and will account for 1% of global GDP.

However, these figures are likely to be surpassed by the effects of the covid-19 pandemic, which has meant that Western societies have embarked on massive, accelerated and improvised digital transformation processes, such that the attack surface has increased exponentially at the same rate as we have increased our digital activity in businesses and households. Among the many economic, international trade and social consequences of the pandemic, one is undeniable: there is a new perception of risk in Western societies. There is a paradigm shift towards a search for security and certainty. Companies and citizens have clearly perceived the total dependence on digital technologies and cybersecurity issues have become the focus of public opinion: online fraud, phishing, disinformation, digital identity, teleworking, facial recognition, digital tracking, Artificial Intelligence...

National and international arbitration is no stranger to this trend, in a context in which the covid-19 pandemic has increased the digitisation and remote processing of arbitration proceedings.

Hence the emergence of regulations aimed at ensuring this cybersecurity, as well as protocols and other soft law rules that seek to apply the content of these regulations in the context of arbitration proceedings.

The article can be read in Wolters Kluwer.