Comparative Analysis Of Cybersecurity Initiatives Essay

INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION

WSIS Thematic Meeting on Cybersecurity
Geneva, 28 June – 1 July 2005

Document: CYB/05
10 June 2005

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF
CYBERSECURITY INITIATIVES WORLDWIDE

© ITU
June 2005

A Comparative Analysis of Cybersecurity Initiatives Worldwide

The paper was prepared by Myriam Dunn, Center for Security Studies, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH
Zurich) for the WSIS Thematic Meeting on Cybersecurity.

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A Comparative Analysis of Cybersecurity Initiatives Worldwide

ABSTRACT
The worst possible consequences of risks created by information and communication technologies
manifest themselves in the possible failure of so-called critical infrastructures, which are systems and
assets whose incapacity or destruction would have a debilitating impact on the national security and
the economic and social well-being of a state. Driven by a growing concern for the potential
vulnerability of networked societies together with an increasing number of disruptions in the cyberdomain, many countries have taken steps to better understand the vulnerabilities of and threats to their
(information) infrastructure, and have proposed measures for the protection of these assets. This paper
investigates national cybersecurity initiatives in order to identify common themes and best practices,
but especially problems and pitfalls for a global culture of cybersecurity. In the first chapter, we look
at how the topic of cybersecurity has made it onto the security political agenda and what the
characteristics of cyber-threats are. Second, we describe how various governments approach the issue
and focus on common issues and problems. We aim to explain differences and similarities in national
approaches by applying political science theory to the topic. Third, we look at how the topic is
approached internationally and uncover two fundamentally opposed paradigms that could pose
considerable difficulties for the...