The Dutch government is to launch the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise, with the intention of capacity building in the fields of cybersecurity, cybercrime, data regulation and e-development, reports Defense One.
The Netherlands is hosting this year's Global Conference on Cyberspace at The Hague this week, where it will open the new forum for the purpose of building funding streams and sharing knowledge and information across countries, particularly in areas that lack experience in cyberspace.
The idea of capacity building in cybersecurity has been gaining momentum in recent years, and will be especially important as internet access becomes more widely available in developing nations. Defense One's Camino Kavanagh argues that the next billion internet users will come from the developing world, so infrastructure that can be built or actions that can be taken now could prove "critically important."
Full details of the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise will be revealed when it is officially launched at The Hague on Thursday, April 16, where a political declaration will be made emphasizing the need for capacity building and strengthened international cooperation. The success of the initiative could hinge on exactly how it will be funded, implemented and sustained.
The Global Conference on Cyberspace was launched by the UK government back in 2011, bringing together stakeholders from various backgrounds to discuss the challenges facing online freedom and cyber stability.
Additionally, the Global Centre for Cyber Security was created at the University of Oxford in 2013, coordinating international work on cyber threats, as reported by We Live Security.
