WASHINGTON, CMC – The Organization of American States (OAS) says it has collaborated with the California-based Cisco Systems, Inc. in conducting the second Regional Meeting of the Cybersecurity Innovations Councils (CICs) in which from the public and private sectors, civil society, and academia from the Americas, including the Caribbean, discussed the promotion of innovation, awareness-raising among citizens and dissemination of best practices in cybersecurity.
Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is a multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California.
On Friday, the OAS said that the two-day meeting, held at OAS headquarters here, consisted of a series of panels and keynote talks at which experts discussed the state of cybersecurity in the region and how to work collaboratively to improve the capacities of member states in terms of cybersecurity.
“Representatives from the private sector and the implementation community shared their experiences intending to find synergies among multiple stakeholders to help countries prevent, respond to, and recover from cyberattacks,” said the OAS.
In addition, the OAS said new initiatives that will be created under the framework of the CICs were announced: An innovation laboratory, an applied research workshop, and a governance and artificial intelligence course.
During the meeting, the OAS said the community of experts gathered in a creative thinking workshop suggested that initiatives, such as the CICs, strengthen the capacities of the entire cybersecurity ecosystem and promote trust, as well as research and development in the Latin American and Caribbean region.
They also proposed that “the CICs emphasize the secure adoption of emerging technologies that contribute to the digital transformation of organizations and, in particular, address issues such as security by design and by default,” the OAS said.
The OAS said, “it was highlighted that there is the need to prioritize initiatives that contribute to digital transformation, where cybersecurity issues are relevant such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud, 5G and quantum computing would be analyzed in virtual and physical workshops.”
At the event’s opening, the OAS Secretary for Multidimensional Security, Luis Fernando Lima Oliveira, said that “building cyber resilience is essential for the countries of the region to protect themselves against increasingly sophisticated threats.
“The attacks that the region has suffered in recent months show that cybercriminals work in an orchestrated manner, launching similar attacks in different countries almost simultaneously,” he said. “Faced with this, there is no other solution than to work collaboratively.
“Initiatives such as the Cybersecurity Innovation Councils, which promote alliances between the public and private sectors, civil society, and academia, have become increasingly relevant to improve countries’ cybersecurity capacities,” Lima Oliveira added.
Also participating in the inaugural event were Laercio Alburquerque, vice president of Cisco Latin America, and Jennifer Bachus, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Digital Policy and Cyberspace of the United States Department of State, among others.
The OAS said the Cybersecurity Innovation Councils are an initiative of the OAS and Cisco that aims to advance the cybersecurity political agenda of the OAS member-states.
“For this, a space is created where the parties involved, leaders and experts from the private sector, public sector, academia, NGOs (non-governmental organizations), and security technology providers collaborate to promote innovation, raise awareness and expand best practices, to help to solve the digital risks and challenges that affect the digital society,” the statement said.
“The OAS and Cisco, together with the governments of the region, seek to develop greater knowledge of threats and improve cybersecurity in the Americas,” it added.
The OAS said it and Cisco had created a basket fund endowed with US$200,000 for which 11 projects from five regional countries have already been selected among the more than one hundred proposals received.
In addition, the OAS said the CICs work on capacity-building through the OAS-Cisco Academy, which has already trained more than 5,000 people online from 20 countries.
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