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 participants 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 headquartered in San Jose, California.
On Friday, the OAS said the two-day meeting, held at its headquarters, consisted of a series of panels and keynote talks where 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 with the aim of finding synergies among multiple stakeholders to help countries prevent, respond to, and recover from cyberattacks,” said the OAS in a statement.
In addition, the OAS said 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 capacities of the entire cybersecurity ecosystem, promote trust, as well as research and development in the Latin American and Caribbean region.
They also proposed “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.”
The OAS Secretary for Multidimensional Security, Luis Fernando Lima Oliveira, said, at the opening of the event, “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 the capacities of countries in cybersecurity,” Lima Oliveira added.
The Cybersecurity Innovation Councils are an initiative of the OAS and Cisco that aim to advance the cybersecurity political agenda of the OAS member-states, the organization said.
