William Hague, Foreign Secretary, signed the World Economic Forum’s Partnering for Cyber Resilience initiative during the Davos meeting. The UK has joined 70 companies and government bodies across 15 sectors and 25 countries in committing to a set of principles designed to ensure secure and resilient digital global networks.
The WEF aims to raise awareness and understanding of cyber issues among leaders across industries, and to encourage organisations to practice good “cyber hygiene” – steps which can reduce the risks to their organisations and customers, according to the Swiss-based forum.
The WEF says its initiative creates an environment for companies and governments to come together in a safe, trusted and neutral space to tackle issues of common concern, such as protecting national infrastructure or individuals’ personal information across shared networks or physical borders.
On signing, Hague said: “We hope that signing the World Economic Forum Principles on Cyber Resilience will encourage business leaders all over the world to lead the way in creating shared principles for a resilient and thriving Internet. The Internet has a critical role to play as an engine and facilitator of economic growth. Cyberspace must be secure and reliable so that it is trusted as a medium for doing business but at the same time free and open to evolve and innovate naturally. Governments should support the key role of the private sector in creating a trusted and open place to do business both at home and abroad. The WEF principles will help us all – individuals, companies and governments – in our shared aim to promote a safe and secure digital environment to do business.”
Alan Marcus, Senior Director for Information and Communication Technology Industries at World Economic Forum, welcomed the move: “The UK government has been a leading voice in the cyber debate in recent years. It recognises that Cyber resilience is a shared challenge for all parts of society. In 2013, we will work with the UK and our other signatories to continue to drive leadership awareness and understanding, and support multi-stakeholder collaboration across the globe.”
The 43rd World Economic Forum Annual Meeting ran from 23 to 27 January under the theme Resilient Dynamism. More than 2,500 took part. More information about the meeting is available at http://wef.ch/davos2013
Welcomed
Mark Brown, Director of Information Security at Ernst & Young said: “The Government’s move to sign up to the World Economic Forum’s principles on Cyber Resilience reaffirms the UK’s position as a leader in tackling cyber security threats. A position further demonstrated by the widespread recognition of the success of the Government’s Cyber Security for Business Initiative.
“Building on a journey that started with the publication of the new Cyber Security Strategy in 2011, and the inaugural Cyber Security Summit hosted in London the same year, this is yet another call for business leaders to take collective action and to face up to what could be the next big crisis for business after the financial meltdown of 2008.
“To maintain the lead and a competitive advantage, UK businesses should recognise the need to change their traditional board level view of cyber security. Instead of an issue being driven mainly by their IT function, the current risk landscape requires decisions taken at a strategic level, with buy-in from their executive management and delivered through a consistent tone from the top.
“Further collaboration and transparency not just within an organisation, but between companies, their shareholders, outsourced vendors and business partners and not keeping silent over the looming threat is the way forward. This, will require an honest assessment of their current capabilities and collaboration to tackle the common threat, rather than continued adoption of a traditional isolated approach to cyber security.”
