ITU Launches Cybersecurity Index 2017

By Elise De Geyter for Intellectual Property Watch

The UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has published the Global Cybersecurity Index 2017 (GCI-2017). The GCI-2017, the second in this index series, measures the commitments of the 193 member states of the ITU to cybersecurity and helps the member states to identify areas for improvement, according to a press release.

The index indicates the improvement and strengthening of all GCI indicators, which are legal, technical, organizational, capacity building an international cooperation, the press release states. There is space for further improvement in cooperation at all levels, capacity building and organisational measures, according to the GCI-2017.

The index aims at illustrating the practices in use in order to allow the member states to identify gaps and implement activities that are suitable to their national environment, the release states, adding that this helps to harmonise practices and foster a global culture of cybersecurity.

Brahima Sanou, director of the ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau, said in the press release that the ITU “continues to encourage governments to consider national policies that take into account cybersecurity so that everyone can reap the benefits of the online world.”

Separately, the “cyberwellness profiles” of 195 countries are available on the website of the ITU. The profiles are part of the overall support of the ITU to its members and give an overview of the levels of cybersecurity development of countries based upon the five pillars of the Global Cybersecurity Agenda, namely legal measures, technical measures, organisation measures, capacity building and cooperation, according to the ITU website.