WEF adds its voice to Paris call for Cyberspace security

The World Economic Forum has joined the Paris call for Trust and security in Cyberspace by President Macron of France. The initiative is the first government-endorsed global effort on cybersecurity that recognises the important role the private sector plays in protecting the important global public goods of trust and security in cyberspace. The Forum, through its centre for Cybersecurity, will join the Call along with governments, industry and civil society.  Countries supporting the initiative include the member states of the European Union, Norway, Switzerland, Japan, Mexico, Chile, Lebanon and Morocco. It is signed by 150 companies and professional associations as well as 60 civil society organisations. As the International Organisation for Public-Private Cooperation, the Forum is offering its platform as well as its expertise as the leading convening organisation between the private sector and governments for this vital effort.

“We’re facing a new wave of globalisation that is driven by technological advances of unprecedented scale and speed. While we welcome the opportunities arising from this transformation, cyber criminals welcome them, too. I’m convinced that organisations that hope to fend off these new threats on their own will pay a high price. Only through global cooperation can we hope to win the day. That’s why the Forum has chosen to support the Paris Call,” said Troels Oerting, Head of the Centre for Cybersecurity, the World Economic Forum.

The Forum’s Centre for Cybersecurity will work with its network of partners and co-signatories to ensure the implementation and operationalisation of the principles of the Paris Call. It will act to bolster current efforts that support these principles and convene all necessary stakeholders where new efforts are needed to achieve the shared goals. In signing up to the Call, the Forum joins with its co-signatories to reaffirm support for an open, secure, stable, accessible and peaceful cyberspace. As the only international organisation to join these principles, the Forum serves an important role as a neutral platform for the development and broader adoption of the principles that guide global cooperation.

The initiative calls on all signatories to continue working together, notably to prevent and better recover from malicious cyber activities; protect the general availability and integrity of the internet; cooperate to prevent malign interferences in electoral processes; work together against ICT-enabled theft of intellectual property; prevent the proliferation of malicious tools and techniques; increase the security of ICT products and services as well as cyber hygiene; take steps to prevent “hack-back”; work together to strengthen the relevant international norms; Cooperation against cybercrime, mutual understanding of the rights and responsibilities of individuals, companies and governments, and the necessity of building global cybersecurity capacity and capabilities have motivated the Forum’s cybersecurity efforts since 2011 and informed the creation of the Centre for Cybersecurity. The Forum will hold its “Annual Gathering of the Centre for Cybersecurity” in Geneva, Switzerland on 26 and 27 November 2018.