CTO Signs MOU with IMPACT for multilateral cooperation against cyber crimes

Friday, 02 July 2010 12:25  |  James Barton

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) aimed at promoting international cooperation on cybersecurity has been signed between the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) and the Malaysia-based International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats (IMPACT). The document, signed at the end of a two-day Cybersecurity forum in London, paves the way for two organisations to work towards the facilitation of information flow and resources, capacity building and the setting up of robust cybersecurity frameworks for protection against cyber crime.

Under the MOU, both organisations will share and exchange knowledge and information on cybersecurity to enhance each party’s knowledge base. The MOU will also see the cross promotion of capacity-building activities aimed at the public sector, private sector and the civil society, with the objective of finding and exemplifying best practices in cybersecurity.

Besides capacity-building, the MOU will see both organisations provide joint assistance for projects and programmes that will improve cybersecurity, particularly in the less-endowed countries, as well as joint representation to policymakers and regulators to achieve common goals.  Through these initiatives, both organisations intend to operationalise strategies and activities that pave the path to minimising risks in an increasingly interconnected online world.

The MOU exchange was represented by Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Chief Executive Officer, CTO and Philip Victor, Director of Training Skills Development & Outreach, IMPACT.

Endorsing the agreement, CEO of CTO, Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah said, “This MOU is yet another step towards a safer cyber space. Security experts from both the public and private sectors agree that with the advantages of the Internet come a number of threats which require international collaboration to deal with, and at CTO we believe that such MOUs help stakeholders to pool their resources together to help contain these threats.”

According to him, the MOU will also enable IMPACT to potentially use training services of the CTO, including its seminal Programme for Development and Training (PDT) as a delivery channel.  With over forty regional training workshops conducted per year, the PDT will open new vistas for IMPACT to broaden its stakeholder engagement.

“This strategic alliance enables both parties to jointly enhance the global cooperation in defending against cyber threats, which have proven to be pervasive in nature, spiking in numbers on a second-by-second basis,” said Mr. Mohd Noor Amin, Chairman, Management Board, IMPACT.

Statistics from IMPACT’s Global Response Centre saw the number of detected global malware attacks rise from about 7 million attacks in January 2008, to almost 35 million attacks in December 2009, an increase of 400%.  Malware attacks – short for malicious ware – often try to mine pertinent information from end-users or servers for financial gain.  Not surprisingly, networks and computers in the financial services industries were the most targeted, at 71 per cent of globally detected attacks. 

Mr. Amin added that IMPACT, through its capacity-building programmes, aims to help constituents of CTO improve their skills to better respond to the dynamic nature of cyber threats.

More info:

• www.impact-alliance.org
• www.cto.int