www.ict4peace.org
International Cyber Security
Capacity Building Program
Promoting Openness, Prosperity, Trust and Security in Cyberspace
States bear primary responsibility for the safety and security of their citizens,
including in the ICT environment. Many states, especially developing countries and
LDCs however, still lack sufficient capacity to protect their ICT networks and to
engage in bilateral, regional and global cooperation at the technical and diplomatic
level and to learn about concrete threats and respond effectively to them.
The lack of such capacity can make national institutions, critical infrastructures such
as power, Telecom, hospitals, transport and financial sector of a country or the
citizens and the private sector at large vulnerable and can hamper economic and
social development. It can make a country even an unwitting haven for malicious
actors, which negatively impacts the global ICT network on the whole, thus also in the
industrial world. It is often said, that the global ICT network “is only as strong as its
weakest link”.
Support to capacity building in cyber security policy, strategy and diplomacy is
playing an essential role in (1) States engaging in international cooperation and
negotiations (as outlined in the 2013 and 2015 GGE reports on norms and CBMs),
(2) enabling countries to secure its ICT infrastructure for economic and social
development and (3) to strengthen the global ICT network and to ensure their
peaceful use for economic and social development.
Since 2014 and with the support of the Governments of the UK, Germany, Switzerland,
Netherlands, Colombia, Kenya, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, the ICT4Peace
Foundation has carried out a series of Capacity Building workshops for Latin
American Countries (in Bogota in cooperation with OAS), for African Countries (AU,
Addis Ababa), for East African Countries (Nairobi), for ASEAN Countries (Singapore),
Europe (GCSP, Geneva), for OSCE Field staff (Vienna), for Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar,
Vietnam (CLMV countries) in Laos, Vientiane; Hanoi, Vietnam, for ASEAN Countries
Thailand and in Singapore. A further workshop for CLMV Countries is planned for May
2018 in Cambodia.
We cooperate with the GGE experts on refining and delivering the next round of