Strengthening Internet Security and Resiliency Through Innovation

When we look back at the Internet in the early 1990s, access was largely through dial-up on a PC, e-mail was simply text, the Web was not multimedia, and Internet users were mainly North Americans who relied on low-speed. Now, look at the global Internet today. It’s used in every country and by more than 2 billion people – on any number of devices. Bandwidth-intensive types of traffic such as video are experiencing massive growth. It’s expected to take over 6 million years to watch the amount of video that will cross global IP networks each month in 2016.[1] Now, we are moving into the mobile life era — where advanced communications connect virtually everything. The number of smartphones in use globally already exceeds 1 billion.[2]

The foundation for all of this is reliable and secure networks. At AT&T, we know our smart and robust broadband networks play an important role in protecting consumers and businesses against cyber threats. Engineers at the AT&T Global Network Operations Center monitor the condition and health of our network 24/7 and work in real time to identify cyber threats and to protect our customers from these threats. These threats are growing larger and more sophisticated.  Eighty-five percent of all U.S. companies have experienced one or more data breaches.[3] We’ve also seen a 155 percent increase in mobile malware across all mobile device platforms from 2010 to 2011.[4] AT&T has responded by investing and innovating to stay ahead of the threats and anticipate problems before they happen. We know that Internet security and resiliency is a complex problem, and it’s not getting any easier.

Just as innovation and creativity drive our approach to network security, we need to develop new innovative ways of strengthening Internet security and resiliency.  We need concerted and ongoing collaboration among all major participants in the Internet ecosystem to combat cyber threats. 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.  We must create a comprehensive multi-stakeholder strategy for addressing global cooperation in cybersecurity across national boundaries.

Earlier this week, I participated in the third annual Cyber Dialogue hosted by the Canada Centre for Global Security Studies at the University of Toronto. The Cyber Dialogue conference convenes an influential mix of global leaders from government, civil society, academia and private enterprise to participate in a series of conversations around cyberspace security and governance.

A consistent theme of these discussions is that we need to find flexible and scalable solutions for managing security threats in today’s complex environment. Traditional regulatory and inter-governmental processes simply cannot keep up. The multi-stakeholder process has emerged as an innovative alternative solution that better reflects the distributed nature of the Internet and adapts to the rapid pace of technological change.

There also is a recognition that we need to work with Internet users, governments and other stakeholders in all parts of the world to address legitimate security concerns. The global nature of the Internet means that we are all connected and dependent on cooperation and assistance from other stakeholders. And we need to be role models in strengthening security in a way that preserves core values such as privacy, the rule of law and the free flow of information.

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. We are also committed to the multi-stakeholder process as a way to build effective partnerships and develop innovative solutions for global Internet policy issues. It will remain an ongoing effort and we look forward to working with stakeholders to address these challenges.

The post Strengthening Internet Security and Resiliency Through Innovation appeared first on AT&T Global Public Policy.