The Cybersecurity Tech Accord is pleased to endorse the Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace as an early supporter. The Paris Call was announced today by French President Emmanuel Macron at the opening of the 13th Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Paris, delivering an important signal on the importance of stability of cyberspace and the need of governments, industry, civil society and academia to work together towards that objective.
With this endorsement, the Tech Accord is delighted to join what we expect to be a growing signatory list of over 300 governments, civil society organizations, and industry groups and representatives in a commitment to trust and stability in cyberspace.
The Internet has become central to human existence, delivering countless benefits to individuals and organizations alike. As we look to the future, new online technologies will do even more to help address important societal challenges, from improving education and healthcare to advancing agriculture, business growth, job creation, and addressing environmental sustainability.
On a number of occasions in the last few years we have seen how precious a resource the internet is and how vulnerable to attacks by sophisticated actors. Events such as WannaCry and NotPetya can and have not only crippled companies and resulted in substantial financial losses, but can also have serious, adverse consequences for international and national security, democratic processes, the global economy, and the safety, security and privacy of individuals.
President Macron’s leadership on this initiative is therefore both timely and sorely needed. As a community we need to work together towards a consensus of shared principles and mechanisms that will help ensure that we can further encourage the evolution of innovative technologies, whilst at the same time ensure they can operate in a peaceful and secure cyberspace.
With that in mind, the Cybersecurity Tech Accord signatories particularly wish to highlight:
- our support to an open, secure, stable, accessible and peaceful cyberspace;
- the commitment to international human rights law in cyberspace: the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online;
- the importance of international law as the foundation for international peace and security in cyberspace;
- our encouragement in seeing our call for greater uptake of coordinated vulnerability disclosure policies reflected in the text; and
- the recognition of the importance of cybersecurity capacity building efforts, such as the ones we have embarked on over the past few months.
We also welcome the symbolic timing of the initiative. The launch of the Paris Call comes during the Paris Digital Week, which encompasses both the Paris Peace Forum and the IGF meeting, bringing together the various communities active and critical to in Internet Governance – from governments, industry, to civil society and academia. The Paris Digital Week is an important milestone in today’s global efforts to tackle the challenges generated by the ongoing digital transformation our world is experiencing. The effort to bring these communities together should be applauded and has already born fruit as we have seen many individuals and organizations, who do not typically engage in these discussions, endorse the Paris Call. Indeed, we believe that only a multi-stakeholder approach, focused on improving global prosperity and security, can help us achieve an open, secure, stable, accessible and peaceful cyberspace.
This opportunity demonstrates our collective action under the 4th principle of our guiding efforts – partnering with each other and likeminded groups to enhance cybersecurity. That said, we are honored to have the opportunity to contribute and support the Paris Call and will continue to engage in a dialogue across the multi-stakeholder community to ensure that progress in this critical area for not just our signatory companies, but all citizens globally, continues to be made.