A former Cabinet Minister, Michael is currently a member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life and of the Justice Select Committee of the House of Commons. He is also chairman of EURIM’s e-Crime Working Group, and of the UK Internet Governance Forum.
Last June’s Digital Britain Report named him as chairman of the new Tripartite Internet Crime and Security Partnership.
World Summit on the Information Society
In 2005, in his capacity as Minister of State for the Department of Trade & Industry, Michael led the UK delegation to the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis. Two years later, he played a lead role in the UK Parliament’s delegation to the US Congressional Internet Caucus in Washington.
Michael has also been strongly engaged with the United Nations’ Internet Governance Forum, attending its annual meetings in Rio, Hyderabad and Sharm el-Sheikh from 2007-2009 with a cross-party delegation of MPs.
Speaking to SMT Online about the European Information Assets Protection Conference, Alun Michael said: “The biggest challenge we face over the next few years is making the Internet a place where people can be safe and feel safe. That requires protection of the infrastructure, high quality police and intelligence work, combined with a strategic partnership approach by industry, Government and ‘the public’ at large.”
Michael concluded: “Our challenge is to make the UK ‘the safest place to do business online’ and to show leadership in the wider world of global Internet governance. Partnership and co-operation – often undervalued in the offline world – offer the only way to tackle the challenges of the online world.”
Education for security professionals
Mike Alexander, current chairman of ASIS International’s UK Chapter 208, added: ” On behalf of the ASIS International UK Chapter, I am delighted and welcome the fact that the Rt Hon Alun Michael MP has agreed to be a Keynote speaker at the European Information Asset Protection Conference being held in London.”
The conference itself will feature more than 15 high-level educational sessions for and by security professionals (both from the physical and information security functions) that will cover a wide range issues related to the protection of intangible assets. These will include data protection and privacy, the convergence of information and physical security, the protection of proprietary information, corporate espionage, online identity theft, cloud computing and remote access (among many others).
Participants who register before 1 December benefit from a discounted rate.
Organisations that want to benefit from this tremendous opportunity to gain exposure and to raise the visibility of their brand, products or services in Europe and the UK should visit the dedicated web site (links for registration and sponsorship can be found on the right hand panel of this page)
