As summer draws to an end, and students around Europe prepare for their academic year, this brings to mind an outstanding educational opportunity that I participate in during the summer.
The European Summer School on Internet Governance (Euro-SSIG) helps interested students and academics as well as individuals working in the private sector or in government, better understand the various aspects of global Internet Governance.
AT&T was pleased to sponsor Euro-SSIG 2012 and I had the opportunity to participate in a panel on the business dimension of Internet governance last week. The panel, moderated by Ayesha Hassan (ICC), included Theresa Swinehart (Verizon), Thomas Spiller (The Walt Disney Company) and Peter Hellmonds (Independent Public Affairs Professional) as speakers. My fellow panelists kicked off the discussion touching upon the Internet Governance landscape and importance of engaging in the process, free flow of information and IPRs while I intervened on cybersecurity.
Without question, cybersecurity is a global issue. Last year, the U.S. and EU launched a working group on cybersecurity and cybercrime to increase transatlantic cooperation on the issue. Cooperation and collaboration will help us all stay ahead of the growing cyber threats and protect the digital infrastructure of individuals, businesses, public services and governments. Protecting our networks is critical and a top priority for network operators as well as regulators and lawmakers. But the entire Internet ecosystem – and that includes applications, devices and users – play integral roles in effective cybersecurity.
Cyber criminals are increasingly exploiting user carelessness and naïveté. Attackers are going directly after the end user and attempting to trick them into downloading malware or divulging sensitive information. And the challenges are complicated by the evolving nature of cyber threats.
As a global player in communications and innovation, AT&T takes our responsibility very seriously to protect our network and our customers from the ever more complex and dynamic nature of cyber threats. Our intelligent network technologies give us the capability to analyze traffic flows to detect malicious cyber-activities, and in many cases, identify very early indicators of attacks before they have the opportunity to become major events.
Intelligent networks can do a lot … but only if public policies let network operators apply the sophisticated network management practices that our customers expect. Policymakers should focus on establishing policies that preserve the private sector’s ability to be flexible in addressing cyber threats and that promote continued investment and innovation. We should never forget that our cyber adversaries are very dynamic, ever more sophisticated, and nimble. They do not operate under a laboriously defined set of rules or processes.
We’re more connected than ever … and we’re more productive than ever. Unfortunately, that also means we’re more exposed than ever … and the security threats we’re seeing are more sophisticated.
There is no easy or perfect solution to cybercrime. It will remain an ongoing effort. But what is clear is that staying ahead of the growing threats and protecting our digital infrastructure will require many different partners – governments, network providers, law enforcement agencies, Internet users, content providers, software developers and security providers – pulling together effectively.
To conclude, I would like to congratulate the organizers for the excellent initiative and for gathering such a group of engaged students and professors!
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