The EastWest Institute has just released a report detailing the results of the First Worldwide Cyber Security Summit: Protecting the Digital Economy, at the same time outlining the cyber security initiative’s next steps as it prepares for the Second Worldwide Cyber Security Summit in London on 1-2 June.
At the inaugural Summit, held from 3-5 May last year in Dallas, Texas, the EastWest Institute brought together over 400 technical experts, policy elites and national security officials from the Cyber40 (an informal grouping of the world’s most digitally-advanced countries, including the United States, China, India, Russia and Estonia).
Participants worked to identify problems facing crucial sectors of the Internet, such as financial services and essential Government services, and forge concrete solutions to protect the world’s digital infrastructure.
“We left the conference with a confirmed conviction that voluntary agreements, private sector leadership and urgent attention define the avenue to positive change, but not cumbersome regulations,” said Karl Rauscher, the EastWest Institute’s chief technology officer.
As the report details, the EastWest Institute’s cyber security agenda grew in part out of small, intensive working groups that met at the Summit.
Building private-public partnerships
Currently, the EastWest Institute’s cyber security team is building private-public partnerships to protect the undersea fibre optic cables that carry intercontinental financial Internet traffic, developing policies to assure international priority communications and facilitating bilateral processes to create ‘Rules of the Road’ for cyber conflict.
The Summit drew participants including Randall Stephenson (chairman of the Board, CEO and president of AT&T), Byeong Gi Lee (president of the IEEE Communications Society), Jody Westby (CEO of Global Risk LLC) and Michael Dell, chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO at Dell Communications who spoke at the opening ceremony.
The participant list reflected the rapid growth of the EastWest Institute’s cyber security initiative which, a year after its founding, has already gained the support of 300 companies including Microsoft and Goldman Sachs.
“The EastWest Institute is fulfilling a necessary niche, providing leadership and bringing together resources and expertise from different sectors around the world,” said Terry Morgan, the organisation’s vice-president.
Morgan added: “Clearly, protecting the Internet is a job too big for one company or country alone.”
What’s next for the EastWest Institute’s cyber security initiative? The aforementioned Second Worldwide Cyber Security Summit.
To register for the event access the web link provided on the right hand panel of this page
You can also access an online report of the inaugural Summit by clicking on the alternative link provided
About The EastWest Institute
The EastWest Institute is an international, non-partisan, not-for profit policy organisation focused solely on confronting critical challenges that endanger peace.
The organisation was established in 1980 as a catalyst to build trust, develop leadership and promote collaboration for positive change.
The Institute operates from offices in New York, Brussels and Moscow.
For further information access the web link provided on the right hand panel of this page
