Dr. Andreas Kuehn, Senior Fellow, Cyber Cooperation Initiative, Observer Research Foundation America, organized and spoke at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) event titled “Bringing practical tools to the global community to secure ICT supply chains.”

Recent cyber incidents, including the SolarWinds and Exchange Server hacks, remind us about the importance of secure ICT supply chains to operate critical digital infrastructure and services in a trusted manner. The global COVID-19 pandemic has also emphasized the importance of trusted digital services build upon global supplier networks that all rely on ICT. Despite significant efforts to shore up supply chain security through discussions in international forums, new supply chain security frameworks and standards driven by governments and industry, implementing the right measures effectively along supply chains in transnational organizations as well as small and medium-sized enterprises remains challenging.
This 0day session will provide a platform to discuss practical ways to advance ICT supply chain security, with two desired outcomes in mind:
1. To close the ‘knowledge gap’ by discussing and sharing the preliminary findings of the Working Group 6 (WG6) of the Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace on ICT supply chain security, and using the 0day session’s discussion as further input to the Paris Call process. The discussion will be based on the WG6’s comprehensive mapping of key supply chain security initiatives and analysis; and
2. To close the ‘implementation’ and ‘accountability gaps’ by discussing with representatives of different stakeholder groups – including governments, the ICT industry, and civil society – and of regions – including Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Asia-Pacific – factors leading to success and failure in the implementation of these initiatives, as well as roles and responsibilities of different stakeholder groups in achieving ICT supply chain security.

Conference description and recording are available.