Discuss the relevance and merit in the Microsoft proposed "Digital Geneva Convention" to prevent cyber warfare.

Satya Nadella in a recent interaction with Indian media pitched in his idea of having some universally accepted guidelines for the cyber world in the lines of the Geneva Convention which is instrumental in determining the dos and don’ts during conflicts. A Digital Geneva Convention or something like on those lines will be instrumental in protecting the internet users which are increasing day by day. What is more important is that the infrastructure is vulnerable to cyber-attacks which can and have in the past led to data theft of lakhs of people
As per the estimates of Microsoft, nearly $ 3 trillion will be lost by 2020 due to hacking and other activities which are illegal. The cyber platform is becoming more and more hostile as many governments, companies, individuals or groups around the world are using it for espionage, theft and anti-social activities.
The idea is very much relevant to the increasing interference of governments to regulate the content and manipulate it for its as per requirements. Something like Digital Conventions will in fact help in separating what is acceptable and what is not. In wars many at times people were not directly involved in the action but in the 21st century a huge chunk of the population has used or has access to the internet, therefore, they are more likely to be affected by any activity on it.

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