OSCE hosts national workshop in Zagreb on enhancing cyber-security

ZAGREB, 23 November 2009 - A national expert workshop on combating terrorist use of the Internet and comprehensively enhancing cyber-security, organized by the OSCE Action against Terrorism Unit on the request of the Croatian authorities, started in Zagreb today.

Participants in the two-day workshop include more than 140 Croatian representatives and decision makers as well as some 20 leading experts in the cyber-security field from both the public and private sector.

The timeliness of the event and the urgent need to secure cyberspace was highlighted by John Rollins of the U.S. Congressional Research Service: "Cyber-security today is what the terrorist attacks on the United States were in 2001 and the financial crisis was to the international community in 2008 and 2009. At a time in the not-so-distant future, in conducting a post-mortem of what went wrong, the international community will look back and wonder why it did not urgently pursue strategies to address current and emerging threats emanating from cyber-related activities."

The workshop is the second national training workshop organized by the OSCE Action against Terrorism Unit addressing cyber-security in a comprehensive manner, including terrorist use of the Internet, cybercrime and other threats, including those to critical infrastructures.

"The growing dependence on information technology and the increasing interconnection of critical infrastructure has made a secure cyberspace vital to the very functioning of a modern state. Cyber-security, therefore, needs to be an intrinsic part of any state's national security considerations," said Dimitar Jalnev, the Programme Co-ordinator of the OSCE Action against Terrorism Unit.

The expert meeting is intended to raise awareness of concrete steps to strengthen cyber-security, the impact - including the economic impact - of potential attacks and pertinent legal frameworks, as well as to showcase defensive measures, including lessons learned and relevant best practices.

Central to the workshop's objective is co-operation with the private sector. Kurt Einzinger, the former President of the European Association of Internet Service Providers, said: "Internet Service Providers regard cyber-security and safe usage of the Internet as the essential prerequisite of their trade. We have to find the right equilibrium between providing on the one hand trust and strict data protection for the users, and on the other hand effective law enforcement and a secure internet infrastructure without impeding the free flow of information and ideas in cyberspace."