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International Cooperation
The Internet and ICTs have enabled interconnection between countries
that was not possible before. Countries cannot easily close their
borders to incoming cyber threats and cannot either contain those coming
from within. Attempts to solve these challenges at national or regional
levels are important, but they are undermined. Cybersecurity is as
global and far-reaching as the Internet. Therefore solutions need to be
harmonized across all borders. This necessarily entails international
cooperation, not only at government level, but also with industry,
non-governmental and international organizations. Cybersecurity concerns
all types of measures. For this reason, the GCA seeks to harness the
power of multi-stakeholder collaboration in order to arrive at global
strategies to enhance cybersecurity.
High Level Expert Group
The High-Level Experts Group (HLEG) initiated the GCA process by giving
advice on strategies in all five work areas. The HLEG comprised a group
of high-level experts from governments, industry, relevant
regional/international organizations, research institutes, academic
institutions and individual experts from every part of the world,
appointed by the ITU Secretary-General. The responsibilities of the HLEG
were to meet and further develop the GCA, by proposing refinements to
its main goals, analyze current developments in cybersecurity, including
both threats and state-of-the-art solutions, anticipate emerging and
future challenges, identify strategic options, and formulate proposals
to the ITU Secretary-General and finally to provide guidance on possible
long-term strategies and emerging trends in cybersecurity. The HLEG met
on multiple occasions at the ITU and in November 2008, the ITU published
their strategies in a Global Strategic Report. The Chairman’s Report
further summarizes the work of the HLEG, the views expressed by HLEG
members and other information about the work carried out by HLEG since
its inception. Some of the proposals were taken into consideration by
the ITU Secretary General during Council 2008. Those proposals that were
considered were reviewed by all the ITU Sectors, linked to the relevant
ITU mandate and taken into account in the work programmes of the
Sectors.
International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats
The International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats
(IMPACT) is an international public-private initiative dedicated to
enhancing the global community’s capacity to prevent, defend and respond
to cyber threats. In May 2008, the ITU was invited to become a member of
the IMPACT Advisory Board. In November 2008, this collaboration came to
fruition, with IMPACT’s headquarters in Cyberjaya, Malaysia formally
becoming the GCA’s operational, physical, state-of-the-art home. The ITU
maintains a ‘virtual showcase’ in Geneva of the early warning system,
crisis management and real-time analysis of global cyber-threats. All
IMPACT-based initiatives provide services in the five work areas of the
GCA.
IMPACT Centre for Policy and International Cooperation
Under the ITU leadership, and together with partners such as United
Nations agencies, Interpol, Council of Europe and OECD among others, the
Centre for Policy & International Cooperation contributes to the
formulation of new policies and the harmonization of national laws
around a variety of issues relating to cyber threats, including
cybercrimes. The Centre for Policy & International Cooperation also
provides advisory services to interested ITU Member States on policy and
regulatory matters for cybersecurity. With the support of the ITU, the
Centre fosters international cooperation through specific programs such
as coordinated cyber-drill exercises between countries.
ITU Cybersecurity Gateway
The purpose of the ITU Cybersecurity Gateway
is to provide an easy-to-use
information resource on
national, regional
and
international cybersecurity-related initiatives worldwide. In today's
interconnected world of networks, threats can originate anywhere, and
thus our collective cybersecurity depends on the security practices of
every connected country, entity, business, and citizen. National and
international cooperation is needed among those who seek to promote,
develop and implement initiatives for a global culture of cybersecurity.
Through the Cybersecurity Gateway ITU aims to enable information access,
dissemination and online collaboration among stakeholders working in
cybersecurity and cybercrime related area. The Cybersecurity Gateway can
serve as a platform to make stakeholders more aware of the various
actors and groups working on the different areas of cybersecurity at the
national, regional and international level. The ITU invites all
interested parties to explore the vast resources and links available
through the Cybersecurity Gateway and join in partnership with the ITU
and others to build confidence and security in the use of ICTs.
Child Online Protection
Under the GCA umbrella, the ITU launched the Child Online Protection
(COP) initiative in November 2008. The COP initiative has been
established as an international collaborative network for action to
promote the online protection of children and young people worldwide by
providing guidance on safe online behaviour in conjunction with other UN
agencies and partners. The key objectives of the initiative are to:
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Identify the key risks and vulnerabilities to children and young
people in cyberspace;
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Create awareness of the risks and issues through multiple channels;
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Develop practical tools to help governments, organizations and
educators minimize risk;
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Share knowledge and experience while facilitating international
strategic partnerships to define and implement concrete initiatives.
The COP initiative draws together an effective package of policies and
practices, education and training, infrastructure and technology, and
awareness and communication. The COP initiative is based on a
multi-stakeholder approach and the belief that every organization -
whether online or mobile, educator or legislator, technical expert or
industry body - has something to contribute.
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