By Wolfgang Ischinger
Five years ago, Deutsche Telekom and the Munich Security Conference came together to cooperate on cybersecurity issues through of a series of joint events. Just ahead of our Cyber Security Summit in Tel Aviv on June 28 – the fifth such conference already! – I would like to share a few thoughts. We are very excited to continue this journey by bringing together international experts from the business and tech communities, academia, politics, and the military.
I have worked as a diplomat for over 40 years and I have seen how important cooperation across sectors is as we try to face the many critical questions of today – from climate security to health to disarmament. But in no area of the international and transnational agenda is collaboration across sectors and fields more important than in cybersecurity! Governments and international organizations depend on the private sector to improve our digital defenses. And vice versa, businesses depend on help from government actors to be prepared as well as capable to defend against attacks. Of course, private and non-private actors will not always see eye-to-eye. Understandably, they are sometimes suspicious of each other. But they must work together – and trust each other at least to some degree. That is one critical purpose our joint Munich Security Conference – Deutsche Telekom conferences serve: increase trust and mutual understanding through open discussion.
They are also important in another respect: to build and exchange knowledge. Political leaders often do not have the necessary expertise to make decisions on digital issues. Many do not understand the language of IT professionals, while the experts in turn are sometimes a bit apolitical. This is why we need interpreters, or even better, bilinguals! We do not only need more cyber experts in our political institutions, but also an extensive cross-sectoral dialogue. Only by ensuring a close collaboration between politics and the military, science and the business sector, we will be able to successfully meet the challenges of the digital age.
The Munich Security Conference, as the world’s leading forum for debating international security policy, is well positioned to contribute to the discussions on cyber security. How do cyber weapons affect global stability? Is the new reality adequately reflected in strategic thinking? But we also need the private sector perspective! How do we protect critical infrastructures, especially as more and more parts of our physical environment are connected to the Internet? What are the best ideas companies have to improve cybersecurity across our societies? I am thrilled Deutsche Telekom, as a particularly committed and engaged company, has been willing to work with us to move the discussion on these issues forward.
And I am very much looking forward to our discussions – in Tel Aviv, Berlin and in coming months and years!
