ITU for cyber treaty to tackle cyber security problems

Published 27 May 2010

ITU mulls an international cyber treaty to tackle cyber crime; the cyber treaty will have elements including governments being committed to protect cyber security and citizens not harboring terrorists in their own territories

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is mulling to bring out a cyber treaty to tackle the cyber security problems, its secretary-general Hamadoun Toure said. He said cyber security was emerging as a major concern to the nations and requires bringing together not only the governments and the industry but also all the stakeholders to tackle the problem.

The treaty is at the discussions level and we should be talking about designing an international framework of cooperation and it may take 10 years for it to come out,” Toure told reporters at the World Telecommunication Development Conference 2010 which kicked off in Hyderabad, India, on Monday.

He said children remained a key concern of the cyber security though technology is the key driver of development and there were problems in defining a cyber crime as different countries have different ways.

Outlook India reports that Toure said that the cyber treaty will have elements including governments being committed to protect cyber security and citizens not harboring terrorists in their own territories. He said broadband would be the tool to deal with climate change, for mitigating natural disasters, e-applications, capacity building and others.

On the impact of recession on the ICT, he said the segment grew strongly as companies cut down expenses on communications. He described video conference was the alternative to travel.

He also opined that the Governments should cut down high licensing fee for telecom companies as it ultimately burdens the end user - the consumer.