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National Strategies

In the digital age, modern societies are globally interconnected and increasingly dependent on ICTs and digital infrastructure. However, this interconnectivity also creates interdependencies, and vulnerabilities to emerging threats that need to be managed at the national, regional and international levels. Enhancing cybersecurity and protecting critical information infrastructures is essential to every nation's security and economic well-being – particularly in the global move towards the digital economy and information society.

At the national level, cybersecurity is a shared responsibility which requires coordinated action for prevention, preparation, response, and incident recovery on the part of government authorities, the private sector and civil society. For this to operate smoothly and to ensure a safe, secure and resilient digital realm a comprehensive framework or strategy is necessary which has to be developed, implemented and executed in a multi-stakeholder approach. This framework is often referred to as National Cybersecurity Strategy (NCS) – and is a critical element for any country’s socio-economic security. ITU presents members with a reference guide to help countries create an effective national cybersecurity framework.

FREE ONLINE TRAINING

ITU offers a new free online training: Lifecycle, principles and good practices of national cybersecurity strategy development and implementation.
(English, French, Russian, Spanish)

This training is designed to prepare national leaders, policymakers, and cybersecurity practitioners from the public and private sectors to think strategically about cybersecurity at the national level. It is organized in four e-learning modules and an online tabletop exercise based on the Guide to Developing a National Cybersecurity Strategy.

Users will achieve the following learning objectives through this training:

Understand the main concepts and definitions of cybersecurity while gaining a solid foundation on how cybersecurity operates at the national level;
Discover the relevant cybersecurity good practices and how they can be applied in the national context;
Familiarize with the Guide to Developing a National Cybersecurity Strategy;
Master the five phases of the lifecycle of a national cybersecurity strategy (Initiation, stocktaking and analysis, production, implementation, monitoring and evaluation); and
Learn the cross-cutting principles to be addressed for developing a forward-looking and holistic national cybersecurity strategy.

To be able to register for the course you must first create an account in the ITU Academy portal. When you have an existing account or created a new account, you can apply for the course online.

ITU reviewing committee will then verify your credentials and grant you access to the course.

Please follow the links below to participate: Lifecycle, principles and good practices of national cybersecurity strategy development and implementation.
(English, French, Russian)

GUIDE TO DEVELOPING A NATIONAL CYBERSECURITY STRATEGY

Second edition of the Guide to Developing a National Cybersecurity Strategy

This Guide aims to provide a useful, flexible and user-friendly framework to set the context of a country’s socio-economic vision and current security posture and to assist policy-makers in the development of a Strategy that takes into consideration a country’s specific situation, cultural and societal values, and that encourages the pursuit of secure, resilient, ICT-enhanced and connected societies.

The Guide is a unique resource, as it provides a framework that has been agreed on by organisations with demonstrated and diverse experience in this topic area and builds on their prior work in this space. As such, it offers the most comprehensive overview to date of what constitutes successful national cybersecurity strategies.

See the launch event here

The reference guide represents a comprehensive one-stop resource for countries to gain a clear understanding of the purpose and content of a national cybersecurity strategy, as well as actionable guidance for how to develop a strategy of their own. The reference guide further lays out existing practices, relevant models and resources, as well as offers an overview of available assistance from other organizations. An accompanying support tool assists evaluation of the strategy.

Reference Guide and evaluation tool were drafted in a democratic process among partnering organizations.