SETTING THE STAGE


Cyberspace is Fundamental to the Modern Global Economy. In recent decades, “cyberspace” has grown phenomenally. An interconnected global digital infrastructure, cyberspace includes the Internet, computer systems, hardware, software and services, and digital information. Collectively, cyberspace has brought unprecedented economic growth, opportunity, and prosperity. It is the nervous system of today’s economy - most of our major economic institutions would not operate without it. It enables e-commerce, e-government, information sharing, and trade. In fact, the annual global economic benefits of the commercial Internet equal $1.5 trillion1


. Cyberspace’s


underlying information technologies (IT) have automated entire economic sectors such as finance and manufacturing and continue to create whole new industries and markets. Cyberspace also evolves quickly. Technologically, the connectivity, devices, and uses of today - computing tablets, home networks, smart meters, cloud computing, social networks - have made the cyberspace of today radically different from that of five years ago. Demographically, young generations view social networking and online collaboration as parts of their daily lives. Geopolitically, cyberspace is expanding across borders, making the world smaller. Cyberspace will continue to evolve and change and its future is exciting and in many ways unpredictable.


Cybersecurity is Fundamental to Cyberspace. The interconnected, global, and digital nature of the cyber infrastructure unfortunately also has presented bad actors with completely new crime opportunities. Security practices serve to counter these opportunities and allow cyber-based transactions and activities to occur. In this area, the interests of industry and governments are fundamentally aligned. Companies across all industry sectors want a secure digital infrastructure for commercial transactions. IT companies build the hardware, software, and services to enable a secure infrastructure and recognize the need for trust in their technologies and services. To ensure the continued viability of the infrastructure and growth of their sector, IT companies are highly motivated to design and build security into the DNA of their products and systems. Governments need a secure global digital infrastructure for similar reasons – economic growth, prosperity, efficiency, and protection - all of which provide tremendous value to their nations’ businesses, citizens, and economies.


Cybersecurity is Advancing in Tandem with Cyberspace. The growth of cyberspace will continue to advance if interoperability, openness, stability, resiliency, economic growth, and risk mitigated by security guide its development. In the right policy environment, we can increase security while maintaining cyberspace’s overall benefits. A host of tools and approaches are available to consumers, businesses, governments, infrastructure owners and operators, and the IT industry to meet our shared security challenges and goals. These evolving tools include information sharing, risk management models, technology, training, and the development of globally accepted security standards, guidelines, and best practices. Public policy will play an important role in encouraging the use and improvement of these tools and helping to shape the expectations and actions of stakeholders on cybersecurity.


1 “The Internet Economy 25 Years After .Com: Transforming Life and Commerce,” Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), March 2010.


The IT Industry’s Cybersecurity Principles for Industry and Government PAGE 7


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