The United Nations is making a push to more directly influence global policy on artificial intelligence, including the promotion of policymaking and technical standards around “safe, secure and trustworthy” AI. 

Last month, the world body finalized plans to create a new expert panel focused on developing scientific, technical and policy standards for the emerging technology. The Independent Scientific Panel on AI will be staffed by 40 international experts serving three-year terms and will be drawn from “balanced geographic representation to promote scientific understanding” around the risks and impacts.

The same resolution also created the Global Dialogue on AI Governance, which will aim to bring together governments, businesses and experts together to “discuss international cooperation, share best practices and lessons learned, and to facilitate open, transparent and inclusive discussions on artificial intelligence governance.” The first task listed for the dialogue is “ the development of safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence.”

On Thursday, Secretary-General António Guterres said the actions will help the UN move “from principles to practice” and help further promote the organization as a global forum for shaping AI policy and standards. 

It will also be an opportunity to build international consensus on a range of thorny issues, including AI system energy consumption, the technology’s impact on the human workforce, and the best ways to prevent its misuse for malicious ends or repression of citizens. 

The UN’s work “will complement existing efforts around the world – including at the OECD, the G7, and regional organizations – and provide an inclusive, stable home for AI governance coordination efforts,” he said. “In short, this is about creating a space where governments, industry and civil society can advance common solutions together.”

Guterres wielded lofty rhetoric to argue that the technology was destined to become integral to the lives of billions of people and fundamentally restructure life on Earth (computer scientists and AI experts have more mixed opinions around this).

“The question is no longer whether AI will transform our world – it already is,” said Guterres. “The question is whether we will govern this transformation together – or let it govern us.”

The UN’s push on safety, security and trust in AI systems comes as high spending, high-adoption countries like the United States, the UK and Europe have either moved away from emphasizing those same concerns, or leaned more heavily into arguing for deregulation to help their industries compete with China. 

International tech experts told CyberScoop that this may leave an opening for the UN or another credible body to have a larger voice shaping discussions around safe and responsible AI. But they were also realistic about the UN’s limited authority to do much more than encourage good policy.

Pavlina Pavova, a cyber policy expert at the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna, Austria, told CyberScoop that the United Nations has been building a foundation to have more substantive discussions around AI and remains “the most inclusive forum for international dialogue” around the technology. 

However, she added: “The newly established formats are consultative and lack enforcement authority, playing a confidence-building role at best.”

James Lewis, a senior adviser at the Center for European Policy Analysis, echoed some of those sentiments, saying the UN’s efforts will have “a limited impact.” But he also said it’s clear that the AI industry is “completely incapable of judging risk” and that putting policymakers with real “skin in the game” in charge of developing solutions could help counter that dynamic.

That mirrors an approach taken by organizers of the U.S. Cyberspace Solarium, who filled their commission with influential lawmakers and policy experts in order to get buy-in around concrete proposals. It worked: the commission estimates that 75% of its final recommendations have since been adopted into law. 

“The most important thing they can do is have a strong chair, because a strong chair can make sure that the end product is useful,” Lewis said.

Another challenge Lewis pointed to: AI adoption and investment tends to be highest in the US, UK and European Union, all governments that will likely seek to blaze their own trail on AI policies. Those governments may wind up balking at recommendations from a panel staffed by experts from countries with lower AI adoption rates, something Lewis likened to passengers “telling you how to drive the bus.”

For Tiffany Saade, a technology expert and AI policy consultant to the Lebanese government and an adjunct adviser at the Institute for Security and Technology, the inclusion of those nontraditional perspectives is the point, giving them an opportunity to shape policy for a technology that is going to impact their lives very soon. 

Saade, who attended UN discussions in New York City this week around AI, told CyberScoop that trust was a major theme, particularly for countries with lesser technological and financial resources.

But any good ideas that come out of the UN’s process will need to have real incentives built in to nudge countries and companies into adopting preferred policies.

“We have to figure out structures around that to incentivize leading governments and frontier labs to comply with [the recommendations] without compromising innovation,” she said. 

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The Secret Service said Tuesday that it disrupted a network of electronic devices in the New York City area that posed imminent telecommunications-based threats to U.S. government officials and potentially the United Nations General Assembly meeting currently underway.

The range of threats included enabling encrypted communications between threat groups and criminals, or disabling cell towers and conducting denial-of-service attacks to shut down cell communications in the region. Matt McCool, special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s New York field office, said the agency’s early analysis of the network indicated “cellular communications between foreign actors and individuals that are known to federal law enforcement.”

In all, the agency said it discovered more than 300 servers and 100,000 SIM cards spread across multiple sites within 35 miles of the U.N. meeting. The Secret Service announcement came the same day President Donald Trump was scheduled to deliver a speech to the General Assembly.

“The potential for disruption to our country’s telecommunications posed by this network of devices cannot be overstated,” U.S. Secret Service Director Sean Curran said in a news release.

McCool said in a video statement that the investigation was ongoing, but the threat the network posed had been neutralized.

“These devices allowed anonymous, encrypted communications between potential threat actors and criminal enterprises, enabling criminal organizations to operate undetected,” he said. “This network had the potential to disable cell phone towers and essentially shut down the cellular network in New York City.

“We will continue working toward identifying those responsible and their intent, including whether their plan was to disrupt the U.N. General Assembly and communications of government and emergency personnel during the official visit of world leaders in and around New York City,” McCool continued.

News outlets briefed on the operation reported that the network anonymously conveyed assassination threats against senior U.S. officials, that the agency had never seen such an extensive operation, that the investigation uncovered empty electronic safehouses rented around the area and that hackers, terrorists, spies and human traffickers could’ve made use of the network. The investigation reportedly began in response to swatting and bomb threats against U.S. officials.

Other participants in the investigation were the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations, the Department of Justice, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the New York Police Department.

Some cybersecurity professionals reacted skeptically to elements of the Secret Service announcement.

“Super weird framing by the Secret Service,” Marcus Hutchins, the researcher known for stopping the 2017 WannaCry ransomware attack, wrote on BlueSky. “They found a SIM card farm, which is typically used by criminals to anonymously send calls and texts. They issued a press release claiming ‘it could have shut down the entire NY cell network during the UN general assembly’ which is some serious FUD,” he said, using the acronym for “fear, uncertainty and doubt.”

He added: “it’s possible they found an actual plot to cause widespread destruction, but way more likely they found some generic cybercrime service and have absolutely no clue what it’s for.”

Johns Hopkins cryptography expert Matthew Green wrote on the same social media platform that “I no longer know what we can trust from the Secret Service, especially when a ‘Trump speech’ is involved, and the mechanics of this thing are a little bizarre.”

Updated 9/23/25: to include reaction from cybersecurity professionals.

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It’s time for SpaceX to take strong action against scammers abusing the company’s Starlink internet service, Sen. Maggie Hassan said in a letter to CEO Elon Musk on Monday.

The New Hampshire Democrat cited evidence accumulating over the past two years that some Southeast Asian fraudsters scamming billions of dollars from U.S. citizens have leaned on Starlink due to its independence from national telecommunications networks, decentralized structure and the ability to use it on the go.

Media outlets and government officials have turned up Starlink equipment at scam compounds that are largely centered in Southeast Asia, and a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report last fall highlighted the trend. 

“While SpaceX has stated that it investigates and deactivates Starlink devices in various contexts, it seemingly has not publicly acknowledged the use of Starlink for scams originating in Southeast Asia — or publicly discussed actions the company has taken in response,” Hassan wrote. “Scam networks in Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos, however, have apparently continued to use Starlink despite service rules permitting SpaceX to terminate access for fraudulent activity.”

Scam compounds have been getting increased attention from Southeast Asian governments and nonprofit organizations in recent months, but there are also signs that the crackdowns aren’t keeping up with the industry’s evolution.

A human rights group last week reported data showing that the scammers’ use of Starlink has more than doubled since Thailand began cutting internet cables to cripple their operations.

SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Monday, and has not responded to past media questions about Southeast Asian scammers using Starlink.

Hassan wants to know whether SpaceX was aware of the scammers using Starlink and if so, when it first knew it, its policies for investigating and restricting the use of Starlink devices, what it’s done to work with law enforcement agencies on the problem and more. She sits on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Much of the cybersecurity-related attention SpaceX has received this year is as a potential target of cyberattacks, particularly after White House security experts warned of the security risks of installing Starlink there and President Donald Trump said he would continue using the service. 

SpaceX has a web page dedicated to Starlink-related scams of another sort.

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