Promoting global cyber security

This year's World Telecommunications Day commemorates the founding of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on May 17, 1865. The ITU is the oldest international organisation in history. Indeed, this year World Telecommunications Day assumes added significance as May 17 was identified by the Tunis World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), held last November, as World Information Society Day.

This decision was confirmed by the United Nations General Assembly and, henceforth, what had been traditionally commemorated as World Telecommunications Day is now coined as the World Information Society Day, thereby raising awareness each year of the importance of the Internet as a global resource.

In commemorating this event the ITU has advocated the development for emergencies and disasters. The ITU opted for the theme 'Promoting Global Cyber Security' to ensure that the growth of ICT remains sustainable as it celebrates its first World Information Society Day.

The ITU recognises the importance to enhance the safeguarding of cyberspace as well as ICT systems and infrastructure in this increasingly networked society. So much so, that the ITU stresses that it is essential to instil confidence in online trade, commerce, banking, tele-medicine, e-government and a host of other applications.

The ITU is conscious that the achievement of cyber security depends on the security practices of each and every networked country, business, and citizen. As a result the ITU promotes the need to develop a global culture of cyber security to guard against the sophisticated skills of cyber criminals.

This is by no means an easy task as such a culture warrants not only good policing and legislation but also acute threat awareness and development of tough ICT-based countermeasures.

During the past 20 years the ITU has taken the lead in promoting global ICT development trends, notably in the past seven years during which time the ITU guided the landmark World Summit on the Information Society to its historic conclusion.

World leaders gathered in Geneva in 2003 and in Tunis in 2005 to provide political backing for a road map aimed at developing and using information and communication technologies in the service of humanity.

In the process the ITU's standing in the world as the lead agency in telecommunications and ICT has been clearly established. The ITU has expanded its base, having pioneered the involvement of all stakeholders. Governments, technological experts, scientists, business and civil society leaders and international organisations have all been deeply engaged in laying the foundations of a more just, equitable and people-centred information society.

The ITU has certainly grown in stature, having taken far-reaching steps in using its recognised expertise to reach out to the remotest regions of the globe to the most vulnerable people, and help accelerate the pace of development.

The ITU has already forged partnerships with some of the greatest visionaries in government, business, civil society and international organisations aimed at connecting the unconnected.

We in Malta can boast of the mutually beneficial relationship with the ITU, which has spanned 36 years. This close relationship climaxed in the recent past with Malta:

¤ topping the list of European countries through the provision of in-kind contribution within the ITU Eurodevtel project;

¤ playing an active role in world events, regional conferences and seminars;

¤ providing technical assistance to member countries of the ITU; and

¤ being singled out at the ITU World Conference in 1994 as a role model for telecommunications development following the successful implementation of our national telecommunications master plan in close liaison with the ITU expertise. Through this achievement Malta was one of the first countries to secure a hundred per cent digital network.

Indeed the ITU had been a key actor for the development in Malta of a state-of-the-art IT infrastructure, which is proving most essential for Malta's future as a dynamic Euro-Mediterranean hub linked to all parts of the world.

It was against this background that at the ITU World Telecommunications Development Conference, in Doha, last March I offered the ITU and the global telecommunications community the benefit of our experiences in drafting and implementing ICT strategies.

Nevertheless, the ICT revolution will continue to develop in ways that offer an ever wider range of opportunities and challenges, and consequently the ITU must also be forward looking to respond to the new times.

It must work even closer with all stakeholders, including UN agencies, the World Bank and NGOs, thereby promoting the broader definitions of telecommunications, namely the application of ICTs.

In this way the ITU will depart from its role of limiting its activities to the traditional telecommunications industry, in the same spirit as the ITU has, on this World Information Society Day, resolved to promote safer and more confident environment for ICTs and cyberspace.

This will ensure that their benefits and opportunities can be enjoyed and made accessible to all. Promoting global cyber security needs both national action and international co-operation that cuts across traditional sectors and responsibilities.

The ITU was created in the 1800s; it expanded in the 1990s and has now entered its third century. The challenge for the ITU is that it must constantly modernise its structure and operational methods.

We in Malta are confident that, as hitherto, the ITU will emerge a stronger leader in the execution of its basic missions. Next November the ITU will have a new secretary general and the race to fill the top five positions in the executive leadership is getting even more exciting.

A number of countries are lobbying aggressively to secure their candidates. This healthy rivalry should guarantee that the ITU will be fielding a new team, hopefully with innovative ideas and a lot of energy to face these challenges.

Mr Galea is Minister for Competitiveness and Communications.