Security management: Parliamentary context

This sub-guideline is part of the guideline Security management. Refer to the main guideline for context and an overview.

Parliaments’ growing reliance on internet-connected systems, including AI, increases existing risks and introduces new ones, ranging from the manipulation of legislative processes to the disruption of administrative tasks. For instance, cyberattacks could alter the content of bills, influence voting outcomes or compromise AI-driven productivity tools. As parliaments adopt AI to manage public participation at scale, these systems may become targets for groups seeking to manipulate democratic processes.

Effective cybersecurity strategies and management practices help to maintain a secure digital environment that protects the integrity of parliamentary operations – especially as AI usage continues to grow. It is key to mitigating risks, ensuring that AI systems enhance rather than compromise parliamentary functions.

For AI systems, risks extend beyond traditional concerns, requiring specific consideration:

• Integrity of the legislative process: Cyberattacks could manipulate AI systems to alter bills, skew voting results or introduce biased information, potentially undermining the democratic process.
• Administrative efficiency: While AI can enhance productivity in administrative tasks, it also introduces new vulnerabilities. Attacks on AI-driven systems could disrupt resource allocation, budget management and other critical operations.
• Public participation: Where parliaments implement AI to manage large-scale public input, these systems can become targets for manipulation, potentially distorting the representation of public opinion.
• Data protection: AI systems often require vast amounts of data, including sensitive information. Ensuring the security and privacy of this data is crucial.
• AI model integrity: Attacks could target the AI models themselves, potentially introducing biases or altering decision-making processes without detection.
• Disinformation campaigns: AI systems used for information analysis and dissemination could be exploited to spread disinformation within parliamentary networks or to bias research.
• Autonomous system vulnerabilities: As parliaments adopt more autonomous AI systems, ensuring that such systems cannot be hijacked or misused becomes critical.

The Guidelines for AI in parliaments are published by the IPU in collaboration with the Parliamentary Data Science Hub in the IPU’s Centre for Innovation in Parliament. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence. It may be freely shared and reused with acknowledgement of the IPU. For more information about the IPU’s work on artificial intelligence, please visit www.ipu.org/AI or contact [email protected].