UN-backed anti-cyber-threat coalition launches headquarters in Malaysia

The headquarters of the global coalition to tackle the world’s most serious cybersecurity threats, backed by the United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU), was inaugurated outside of the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur today.

The new state-of-the-art facilities of the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber-Threats (IMPACT) in Cyberjaya will host the ITU’s Global Cybersecurity Agenda (GCA), which promotes international cooperation to make cyberspace more secure in an increasingly networked information society.

The joint effort by the ITU and IMPACT – an initiative which brings together governments, industry leaders and cybersecurity experts to enhance the global community’s capacity to prevent, defend and respond to cyberthreats – aims to provide real-time analysis, aggregation and dissemination of global cyber threat information.

“Cybersecurity is one of the most critical issues of our time,” said Hamadoun Touré, ITU Secretary-General, noting that the problem demands “a truly global approach.”

Last September, the heads of ITU and IMPACT signed an agreement to operationalize the GCA at IMPACT’s Cyberjaya site.

Although the GCA will be housed at the IMPACT centre, ITU will have a “virtual showcase” at its headquarters in Geneva of the early warning system, crisis management and real-time analysis of global cyber threats.