Liaison statement
LS on initiation of two new work items on digital emblem

ITU-T Study Group 17 (SG17) is pleased to inform you that SG17 established two
new work items on digital emblem as draft new ITU-T technical reports at the
ITU-T SG17 meeting (Geneva, 3-11 December 2025).

The scope and summary are provided in the annex below.

ITU-T SG17 looks forward to continued collaboration with IETF DIEM Working
Group. Annex(es): 2


Annex 1

Draft new ITU-T technical report XSTR.diem
“Technical Report: Digital International Humanitarian Law Emblems”

Purpose and scope
The Digital Emblem Project, led by the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC), seeks to extend the function afforded by the distinctive emblems of the
Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols into the digital domain, with a
view to signaling, by digital means, existing protection that International
Humanitarian Law (IHL) affords to certain digital assets. Uses cases include
(in situations where IHL applies), among others, certain digital assets
belonging to or depended upon by (1) the medical services, (2) cultural
property as defined under the 1954 Hague Convention, and (3) works or
installations containing dangerous forces. Operational prototyping of the
digital emblem is currently under way, and standardization efforts are
progressing at the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in the Digital
Emblems (DIEM) Working Group, where the technical protocol architecture and a
framework for use, production, discovery, and verification are being developed.

While the IETF focuses on protocol specifications, the global adoption,
interoperability, and trustworthiness of the Digital Emblem could benefit from
complementary standardization within the ITU-T. Study Group 17, with its
longstanding expertise in cybersecurity, identifiers, and trust frameworks, is
uniquely positioned to help ensure that the Digital Emblem is integrated into
international telecommunications standards in a way that is globally scalable,
secure, and aligned with States’ legal obligations under international
humanitarian law (IHL).

Summary

This technical report outlines ongoing technical work, identifies areas of
convergence and potential collaboration between IETF and ITU-T, and proposes
next steps for structured involvement by SG17 in future phases of the Digital
Emblem Project.

Annex 2

Draft new ITU-T technical report XSTR.diem-assets

 “Technical Report: Digital emblems as a key solution in resolving the issue of
 inappropriately exposed OT assets in the cyber space”.

Purpose and scope

As digitalization progressed, whilst providing benefits, it occurs that it
inappropriately exposed many assets, in particular OT assets, to cyber space,
increasing significantly the attack surface. This technical report identifies
the problem and develops an approach to address it as a way to reduce OT cyber
risks impacting critical infrastructure (CI) by detecting, identifying and
removing exposed assets from the internet.

This technical report aims to raise awareness on all the underlying issues that
reveal significant technical, operational, legal, design, etc. complexities
that require specific solutions. In particular this technical report recognizes
the benefit of using digital emblems as a mitigation approach to give time,
when possible, to remove asset exposure.

Summary

This technical report provides general context and the problem statement. It is
structured around a step-by-step approach (the detection, identification and
removal of exposed assets) detailing the heavy challenges hiding behind each of
those steps and the paradoxes to which it leads. This technical paper is
developed based on real world experience, testimonies, anonymized/aggregated
data when available. In particular, it shows how certain concepts and solutions
like Digital Emblems can add a lot of value otherwise impossible to then remove
the risk. Given that several national agencies are developing nascent processes
and solutions, this technical paper shows how SG17 could provide future
Recommendations in a view to create a scalable, repeatable, opened and
interoperable approach to resolve this problem at global level.