 | Issue: | Global 2012 |
| Article no.: | 6 | |
| Topic: | The imperative of international cooperation | |
| Author: | Malcolm Johnson | |
| Title: | Director | |
| Organisation: | ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau | |
| PDF size: | 283KB |
About author
Malcolm Johnson has served as Director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (ITU-T) since 2007. Prior to his election to this post in 2006, he was part of the UK Office of Communications (Ofcom), serving as International Coordinator with lead responsibility for UK in ITU and CEPT.
Malcolm Johnson holds Bachelor and Master of Science degrees from the University of Wales, is a Chartered Engineer and is a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
Article abstract
The transnational nature of ICT networks has bred a global challenge in cyber crime. Cyber security is not a challenge confined to certain regions, economies or industry sectors; it is a global challenge and is in need of global solutions. With a membership of 193 countries, over 700 private sector entities and over 30 academic and research institutions, the ITU is an ideal forum in which to foster the international cooperation needed to create lasting solutions to the global cyber security challenge.
Full Article
At January’s World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, the world’s leading public, private and academic voices featured a recurrent theme in their discussions of the global economy’s future; that of today’s ‘hyper-connected’ socio-economic landscape and the new challenges this connectedness poses for governments, businesses and citizens of the 21st century.
The last twenty years’ advances in the capabilities of information and communication technologies (ICTs), and particularly in those of the networks underpinning them, have certainly created a hyper-connected society. This connectedness will continue to grow and, by 2020, today’s nascent Internet of Things (IoT) will have grown into an estimated 50 billion devices connected to the Internet; with automobiles, machinery, home appliances and electricity meters connecting to ICT networks and exchanging information as a tool to increase efficiency.
The Internet has transformed the way the world communicates and does business, and has bred a truly global Information Society. An idea, service or product, no matter where it originates, can enter the global market and develop through an international collation of skills.
As the Information Society includes more of the world’s people, expanding skills and economic opportunity, so it expands an underworld of greater opportunity in cybercrime. Davos termed cyber threats the ‘dark side’ of hyper¬-connectedness; a well-founded term considering 2011’s assertion of the enormity of cyber threats, with the public and private sector equally hard-hit by incidents of major intellectual property theft and, in some cases, espionage.
ICT has become deeply engrained in economic and social systems, and modern society simply cannot function without it. Emergency services, water supplies, power networks, food distribution chains, air travel, shipping, navigation systems, industrial processes, supply chains, healthcare, education… everything depends on ICT networks, and attacks debilitating these services would have calamitous effects.
The transnational nature of ICT networks has bred a global challenge in cybercrime. The cyber threats present in the developing world have become just as significant as those in developed nations, with developing nations today possessing an equal share of the origins and destinations of cyber attacks. The concept of superpower has changed irreversibly as small groups or individuals launch cyber attacks of increasing sophistication and severity, and it is absolutely imperative that countries work together to secure our global digital economy.
ITU’s role as a framework for international cooperation
ITU has a membership of 193 countries, over 700 private sector entities and over 30 academic and research institutions. It is an ideal forum in which to foster the international cooperation needed to create lasting solutions to the global cyber security challenge.
In 2007, pursuant to a resolution of the World Summit on the Information Society(WSIS) tasking ITU with the responsibility of building confidence and security in the use of ICTs, DrHamadounTouré, Secretary-General of the ITU, launched the Global Cybersecurity Agenda(GCA) as a framework for international cooperation.
In 2008, ITU joined forces with the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats (IMPACT), and the ITU-IMPACT Alliance is today a truly global, multi-stakeholder, public-private alliance against cyber threats. Over 130 ITU member states have joined the coalition and are reaping the benefits of ITU’s expertise and resources in their efforts to enhance the global community’s capacity to prevent, defend against and respond to cyber threats.
Also In 2008, ITU’s Child Online Protection (COP) initiative was launched as a multi-stakeholder coalition to protect children from the dangers they face online, and ITU is proud to have Costa Rican President, Laura Chinchilla, as our Patron for the initiative.
However, cyberspace cannot be viewed in isolation. ICT networks form part of every industry’s infrastructure and play a central role in many of the crimes perpetrated within non-ICT industry sectors. ITU has thus signed Memoranda of Understanding with the United Nations Organization for Drugs and Crime (UNODC), specialized in combating organized crime, and Symantec, a private-sector specialist in the security of ICT networks and services.
ITU-T’s role in progressing consensus on issues related to cyber security
An internationally-recognized legal framework to deal with the prevalence of cybercrime has been very difficult to achieve, with the Council of Europe’s Budapest Convention on Cybersecurity having been ratified by less than a quarter of the world’s countries.
Standards bodies such as the ITU-T therefore have a very significant role to play in progressing international consensus on issues related to cyber security. Globally-agreed standards, accessible to all nations, are important steps towards a coordinated global approach to cyber security, and ITU-T is ensuring these steps are taken continuously, with ever-growing urgency.
ITU-T standardization work is initiated by ITU member states and organizations, and ITU-T Recommendations are developed through an approach based on international cooperation and consensus. These Recommendations are created in response to global demand, ensuring they will be implemented, and are agreed by a consensus approach, ensuring all stakeholders’ interests are taken into account.
One of ITU-T’s most recent innovations in the interests of global cyber security is that of a Cybersecurity Information Exchange (CYBEX). The ITU-T X.1500 CYBEX ensemble of techniques is a collection of best-of-breed standards from government agencies and industry. It presents a standardized means to exchange the cyber security information demanded by Computer Incident Response Teams (CIRTs), and is an essential tool to prevent the contagion of cyber attacks from nation to nation.
CYBEX is a product of ITU-T Study Group 17, ITU’s lead study group on telecommunication security. SG 17 is also the ITU’s lead study group on Identity Management (IdM), a crucial element in countering the growing threat of identity theft. I encourage all those interested in ITU’s cyber security agenda to familiarize themselves with the standardization work being undertaken by SG 17 and, wherever possible, to contribute their expertise to its very relevant activities.
A global Information Society requires a global approach to cyber security
When speaking of ICT networks, we are speaking of global networks upon which all nations rely. Cyber security is not a challenge confined to certain regions, economies or industry sectors; it is a global challenge and is in need of global solutions.
ICT networks are pooling our intellectual capital, allowing ideas international reach and creating a smarter, more sustainable global economy. Our Information Society is an asset worth protecting, and I encourage public, private and academic minds to make full use of international organizations such as the ITU, where international cooperation will lead to coordinated means to prevent cyber attacks and well-planned responses to those that do occur.
