Cyber espionage has become a hot subject for debate these days. All the countries deny spying yet at the same time accuse others of doing it. One man wants to put an end to this hypocrisy and wants honest international discussion on cyber espionage.

According to itnews.com.au, the shadow communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull made these comments at a community forum on electronic privacy in Paddington last night.

To get the ball rolling the first thing Mr. Turnbull would like to see is countries admit that it is happening, this will enable the topic to be up for a meaningful discussion.

Most nations spy on their rivals for both military and economic interests, after 9/11 the focus is also on spying on their own citizens. Individual countries do have laws that protect their own citizens from cyber espionage but any correspondence with a foreigner is not subject to these protections.

In a globalised world there have to be International agreements for such activity and parameters should be set. Mr. Turnbull wants Australia to raise this issue with the other countries in international forums like G20. For his part Mr. Turnbull admits to raising his concerns with US officials particularly after the Edward Snowden episode.

It will be interesting to see how the international community will respond to these ideas especially since cyber espionage is aimed specifically at rival countries. An honest discussion and agreement would require a country to admit and disclose its espionage activities which is contradictory to the secretive nature of espionage.

What Mr. Turnbull can hope to realistically achieve is an agreement between friendly nations in closed door meetings. But one wonders if classified agreements to that effect are not already in place and if bringing them out in the open gives no benefit to countries and results in public outrage there is little incentive for countries to openly discuss this sensitive issue.