Experts at UN-backed meeting lay foundation for global cybersecurity roadmap

Experts at a United Nations-backed conference have agreed to jointly take action to combat the constantly evolving and increasingly sophisticated challenges posed by cybercrime.

“The legal, technical and institutional challenges posed by cyber-threats and cybercrime are global and far-reaching, and can only be addressed through a coherent strategy taking into account the role of different stakeholders and existing initiatives, within a framework of international cooperation,” Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General of the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU), said at the meeting on 5 October in Geneva.

This was the first-ever gathering of the High-Level Experts Group for the ITU’s Global Cybersecurity Agenda, and it drew 60 experts from governments, the private sector, academia, research institutions and regional and international organizations.

“New and emerging threats to cybersecurity cannot be solved by any one nation alone,” President of Costa Rica and Nobel peace prize laureate Óscar Arias Sánchez said in a special address.

“There is an urgent need for an international framework, giving us international principles and allowing rapid coordination between countries at the regional and global levels,” added Mr. Arias, who also serves as the Patron of the Global Cybersecurity Agenda.

Participants at the one-day meeting decided that the next steps to be taken to lay the foundation for the anti-cybercrime agenda are to study five key areas – legal measures, technical and procedural measures, organizational structures, capacity building and international cooperation – in depth to create a global roadmap to bolster cybersecurity.