The Pacific's approach towards cybersecurity

Safer Internet Day (SID) was celebrated on Tuesday, 6 February 2018 right across the globe, joining together a community of organisations all committed to making the internet a safer and better place for all, and especially for children and young people. Here we hear from the Fiji Safer Internet Day Committee on their ongoing cybersecurity activities.

Date 2018-05-18 Author Fiji Safer Internet Day Committee
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The influx of broadband services in the Pacific has seen many positive developments across various sectors, but the unforeseen cyber issues that have had indirect impacts are now become a growing concern for the region. Addressing these problems has become quite challenging as recent developments in providing connectivity have led to a greater need for safeguarding the overall ICT infrastructure for Pacific nations.

In the last three to five years, we have seen an excessive growth in global cyber-attacks which have mainly been targeted towards large corporations and governments. However, we have also seen very little progress in implementing safe use mechanisms and user awareness, and this seems to be a key issue for us in the Pacific.

Moving towards a safer cyber environment is something that has become a priority, not just for the Pacific region but at global levels too, alongside other essential development of economy and infrastructure.
Cybersecurity-related initiatives and events have been organised by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Pacific Cyber Security Operational Network (PaCSON), Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO), Pacific ICT Regulatory Resource Centre (PIRRC), UK Safer Internet Centre, and so on, to emphasise cyber cooperation, to address cybersecurity needs, and build capability in these areas to assist under-developed smaller Pacific nations.

One of the key events is Safer Internet Day (SID). Safer Internet Day started in 2004 as an initiative of the EU SafeBorders project and has become quite significant on the online safety events calendar.
Safer Internet Day 2018, organised and celebrated globally on 6 February 2018, saw a diverse range of events and campaigns planned under this year's theme – "Create, Connect and Share Respect : a better Internet starts with you" – all with the aim of promoting better and safer online communities, calling also on wider groups in society and industry to help create a better internet. Activities such as cyber education and internet safety awareness were hosted by relevant organisations and individuals to help promote the safe, responsible and positive use of digital technologies for children. Some of the Pacific member countries which are quite active in the roles of promoting and advocating for online safety were part this global celebration as well.

Bigger and better activities are planned for Safer Internet Day 2019, which will take place globally on Tuesday, 5 February 2019.

The Pacific Cyber Security Operational Network (PaCSON) is another initiative which aims to create a network of cyber professionals from relevant organisations and Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERT) from around the region. An inaugural PaCSON Annual General Meeting (AGM) was recently held in Brisbane, Australia followed by cybersecurity workshops and a Cyber Security Information Exchange. The PaCSON initiative lays the foundation for cybersecurity cooperation in the Pacific for collaboratively strengthening cyber resiliency for PaCSON member countries.

See the Fiji Safer Internet Day Committee profile page for further information.

For further information on Safer Internet Day generally, see www.saferinternetday.org.

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