My colleague Frederic Donck from the Internet Society European Bureau and I were in Manila this past week for APAC Security Congress 2015. The event went through a re-branding exercise this year – which also marked its 10th anniversary. The event was called SecureAsia in past years. I have been speaking at this event for a couple of years now – largely around Internet-related issues.
In discussions with the organisers – and in light of the many privacy related issues of late – we thought it would be interesting to offer the audience some perspectives from Europe on privacy and what this means in today’s dynamic business environment. Frederic very ably had the attention of the 200-strong audience by providing a good overview of the privacy and data regulation landscape in Europe and referencing some of these to Asia.
There was also some good interaction with members of the audience who asked some probing questions on the potential cross-jurisdictional impact of privacy-related regulations.
We also took the opportunity to introduce our Collaborative Security approach to Internet security issues. We emphasised that everyone has a role to play in this with collective responsibility – and there is no one magical measure that will make everything safe and secure. The Internet – and the systems, applications and services that run on it – are constantly evolving. Increasingly, these have also become critical tools that help many economies around the world function effectively and efficiently on a daily basis. Therefore, it is important then that everyone involved needs to cooperate and collaborate to ensure the Internet – and all that it enables – remains a trusted network of networks.