The Bahamas strengthens its cybersecurity capacity

The Bahamas has launched a project with ITU to set up a national Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) to help protect the small island country’s critical digital infrastructure and data.
The National Cybersecurity Project, started in January and officially launched in February at national level, aims to help assess current Bahamian capabilities in this rapidly evolving field, as well as develop its National Cybersecurity Strategy.
The national CIRT will also support the government in building national cybersecurity expertise, closing human resource gaps, and supporting the elaboration of a cybersecurity framework and policies. Bahamian officials must do all they can “to put mechanisms in place to protect the government’s systems and citizens’ data from exposure to [cyber] attacks,” said the State Minister for Finance, Kwasi Thompson.
Digitizing hundreds of government services
The government’s recent decision to digitize more than 200 public administration services over the next five years has heightened the country’s need for a well-equipped cybersecurity team that can identify, defend, manage, and respond to cyber threats, Thompson added.
“The creation of this National Cybersecurity Strategy will help with review and further implementation of cyber legislation for the protection of citizens and clients,” he said.
Rapid growth in online business transactions – among both government entities and the private sector – makes cybersecurity enhancements paramount. The Bahamas, like other small island developing states in the Caribbean, needs to provide a safe online environment that minimizes any risks associated with online service provision.
The project will also support the development of related national cybersecurity platforms, including a national public key infrastructure (PKI), e-government services (including national identity services), and an access management framework.
ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau Director, Doreen Bogdan-Martin, highlighted the project’s region-wide significance. Projects like this one on the Bahamas will strengthen the Caribbean “cybersecurity supply chain” and reinforce international cooperation to combat cyber threats, she said, thanking the Bahamian government for seeking ITU support and expertise.
Building skills and updating tools
Key project objectives include a National CIRT Readiness Assessment, a Cybersecurity Capacity Maturity Model (CMM), a National Cybersecurity Strategy and Action Plan, and all necessary capacity building and service upgrades to activate the national CIRT, said Bruno Ramos, ITU Regional Director for the Americas.
The project is set for full implementation by the end of 2022, with interim steps including six months of ITU support help the CIRT reach maturity.
The national CIRT’s skills and tools will need constant updating, Ramos added. “It is vital to equip the response team with new technologies, deploy additional services, provide technical training, and coordinate and collaborate with other international organizations.”

ITU to advance AI capabilities to contend with natural disasters

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) – the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies – has launched a new Focus Group to contend with the increasing prevalence and severity of natural disasters with the help of artificial intelligence (AI).
In close collaboration with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the ITU Focus Group on 'AI for natural disaster management' will support global efforts to improve our understanding and modelling of natural hazards and disasters. It will distill emerging best practices to develop a roadmap for international action in AI for natural disaster management.
"With new data and new insight come new powers of prediction able to save countless numbers of lives," said ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao. "This new Focus Group is the latest ITU initiative to ensure that AI fulfils its extraordinary potential to accelerate the innovation required to address the greatest challenges facing humanity."
Clashes with nature impacted 1.5 billion people from 2005 to 2015, with 700,000 lives lost, 1.4 million injured, and 23 million left homeless, according to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 developed by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR).
AI can advance data collection and handling, improve hazard modelling by extracting complex patterns from a growing volume of geospatial data, and support effective emergency communications. The new Focus Group will analyze relevant use cases of AI to deliver technical reports and accompanying educational materials addressing these three key dimensions of natural disaster management. Its study of emergency communications will consider both technical as well as sociological and demographical aspects of these communications to ensure that they speak to all people at risk.
"This Focus Group looks to AI to help address one of the most pressing issues of our time," noted the Chair of the Focus Group, Monique Kuglitsch, Innovation Manager at ITU member Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute. “We will build on the collective expertise of the communities convened by ITU, WMO and UNEP to develop guidance of value to all stakeholders in natural disaster management. We are calling for the participation of all stakeholders to ensure that we achieve this."
Muralee Thummarukudy, Operations Manager for Crisis Management at UNEP explained: "AI applications can provide efficient science-driven management strategies to support four phases of disaster management: mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. By promoting the use and sharing of environmental data and predictive analytics, UNEP is committed to accelerating digital transformation together with ITU and WMO to improve disaster resilience, response and recovery efforts."
The Focus Group's work will pay particular attention to the needs of vulnerable and resource-constrained regions. It will make special effort to support the participation of the countries shown to be most acutely impacted by natural disasters, notably small island developing states (SIDS) and low-income countries.
The proposal to launch the new Focus Group was inspired by discussions at an AI for Good webinar on International Disaster Risk Reduction Day, 13 October 2020, organized by ITU and UNDRR.
"WMO looks forward to a fruitful collaboration with ITU and UNEP and the many prestigious universities and partners committed to this exciting initiative. AI is growing in importance to WMO activities and will help all countries to achieve major advances in disaster management that will leave no one behind," said Jürg Luterbacher, Chief Scientist & Director of Science and Innovation at WMO. "The WMO Disaster Risk Reduction Programme assists countries in protecting lives, livelihoods and property from natural hazards, and it is strengthening meteorological support to humanitarian operations for disaster preparedness through the development of a WMO Coordination Mechanism and Global Multi-Hazard Alert System. Complementary to the Focus Group, we aim to advance knowledge transfer, communication and education – all with a focus on regions where resources are limited."

Digital transformation in Europe: 3 key regulatory priorities for 2021

“Europe's mix of enabling regulatory environments, robust connectivity infrastructure and the lively ecosystem of digital technology providers is fuelling the Region's transformation and has proven critical in the resilience during the COVID 19 pandemic,” remarked Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau at ITU, as she welcomed participants of the ITU Regional Regulatory Forum for Europe on Regulation supporting digital transformation.
Held virtually in 2020, the Regional Regulatory Forum (RRF) is one of several milestones of the ITU Regional Initiative for Europe on Broadband infrastructure, broadcasting and spectrum management.
Organized with the support of the Agency for Electronic Communications and Postal Services (EKIP) of Montenegro, the Forum was opened by Vladan Djukanovic, EKIP Board Member, who highlighted the dependency which all sectors of economies now have on information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure and services, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This dependency requires a strategic approach to connectivity.
3 key priorities for 2021
Beyond recognizing the work of the ITU on the REG4COVID platform and other activities related to policy and regulation, representatives attending the RRF agreed on the following three key strategic priorities for 2021:
- carrying out an assessment of regulatory measures undertaken in the context of COVID-19, including the capacity of internal networks and interconnection with other regions,
- accelerating broadband development to bridge the digital divide, especially in terms of coverage, and
- strengthening international cooperation in the field of regulation.
Sofie Maddens, Head of the BDT’s Regulatory and Market Environment Division, shared an insightful reminder of the changing role of regulation and the need for authorities to adapt their toolbox to ensure actions are fit for purpose and following ITU’s gold standard on “collaborative regulation”, the benchmark of fifth generation (G5) regulation.
Unlocking investment in connectivity
The role of data in supporting the deployment of broadband is a fundamental aspect of digital transformation and regulation. By informing more accurate ‘snapshots’ of markets, data facilitates the design and creation of the regulatory incentives needed to deploy networks efficiently.
During the Forum, ITU, the European Commission, BEREC, the European Investment Bank, the World Bank and UNICEF all presented data-driven approaches to smart decision making to create an enabling environment that unlocks the private investments needed to attain connectivity targets, such as the EU Gigabit Society targets of delivering 100 Mbps to all households by 2025.
Member States also shared their experiences in broadband mapping as a tool to accelerate broadband deployment using infrastructure, service and investment data gathered from network operators. National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) from Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Germany, and Lithuania, which have relatively advanced systems encompassing thousands of operators, other network operators (such as utilities), building companies, local and regional administrations, demonstrated how these platforms can enhance collaboration among various stakeholders and support the allocation of public funding leading to fruitful results.
NRAs from non-EU countries such as Albania, Georgia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia also presented their systems, and outlined their efforts towards unlocking investment whilst protecting competition. Given that the potential for improvements in broadband deployment is greater here than in EU countries, the need to allocate additional resources into mapping systems as fundamental enablers was noted.
Despite the recent progress in many non-EU countries taking steps towards harmonization with EU standards, many challenges remain, ranging from the high fixed and operational costs of setting up mapping systems to human capacity building within administrations, but also across operators.
Realizing untapped potential
While the EU regulatory framework for broadband mapping will undergo considerable revisions in 2021, non-EU countries, particularly in South Eastern Europe, have the potential monitor this process closely and leapfrog, establishing state of the art systems.
The background paper Broadband Mapping Systems in Europe and Regional Harmonization Initiatives focuses on the regulation underpinning broadband mapping systems, which are now essential tools for NRAs to allocate public funding efficiently and fostering cross-sector collaboration and investment whilst protecting competition. The paper traces the development of the European Union’s regulatory framework, its most recent and future developments, the actions undertaken by the European Commission and Member States in the field and, finally, looks at eight countries in South Eastern Europe.
I invite all stakeholders to join ITU’s workstreams dedicated to broadband development and regulation and to learn more from the Regional Regulatory Forum’s draft Outcome Report. I also invite you to engage with us on this topic and keep an eye on related activities for 2021 until we can hopefully meet again in person next September in Budva, Montenegro, as it is tradition for ITU Regulatory Forums for Europe.
[Source: ITU]

Why effective disaster management needs responsible AI

The use of artificial intelligence holds promise in helping avert, mitigate and manage disasters by analyzing swaths of data, but more efforts are required to ensure that technologies are deployed in a responsible, equitable manner.
According to UNDDR, about 1.2 million lives have been lost worldwide and more than 4 billion people affected in disasters that took place between 2000 and 2019.
Faster data labelling
Cameron Birge, Senior Program Manager Humanitarian Partnerships at Microsoft, says their work in using AI for humanitarian missions has been human-centric. "Our approach has been about helping the humans, the humans stay in the loop, do their jobs better, faster and more efficiently," he noted.
One of their projects in India uses roofing as a proxy indicator of households with lower incomes who are likely to be more vulnerable to extreme events like typhoons. Satellite imagery analysis of roofs are used to inform disaster response and resilience-building plans. A simple yet rewarding avenue of using AI has been around data labelling to train AI models to assist disaster management.
One challenge, he noted, has been around "unbiased, good, clean, trusted data". He also encouraged humanitarian organizations to understand their responsibilities when making use of AI models to support decision-making. "You have to ensure you sustain, train and monitor these models," he advised. Microsoft also wants to promote more sharing of data with its 'Open Data' campaign.
Precise decision support
AI is becoming increasingly important to the work of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Supercomputers crunch petabytes of data to forecast weather around the world. The WMO also coordinates a global programme of surface-based and satellite observations. Their models merge data from more than 30 satellite sensors, weather stations and ocean-observing platforms all over the planet, explained Anthony Rea, Director of the Infrastructure Department at WMO.
AI can help interpret resulting data and help with decision support for forecasters who receive an overwhelming amount of data, said Rea. "We can use AI to recognize where there might be a severe event or a risk of it happening, and use that in a decision support mechanism to make the forecaster more efficient and maybe allow them to pick up things that couldn't otherwise be picked up."
Understanding the potential impact of extreme weather events on an individual or a community and assessing their vulnerability requires extra information on the built environment, population, and health.
"We need to understand where AI and machine learning can help and where we are better off taking the approach of a physical model. There are many examples of that case as well. Data curation is really important," he added.
WMO also sets the standards for international weather data exchange, including factors such as identifying the data, formats, and ontologies. While advocating for the availability of data, Rea also highlighted the need to be mindful of privacy and ethical considerations when dealing with personal data. WMO is revising its own data policies ahead of its Congress later this year, committing to free and open exchange of data beyond the meteorological community.
'Not a magic bullet'
Rea believes that AI cannot replace the models built on physical understanding and decades of research into interactions between the atmosphere and oceans. "One of the things we need to guard against in the use of AI is to think of it as a magic bullet," he cautioned.
Instead of vertically integrating a specific dataset and using AI to generate forecasts, Rea sees a lot of promise in bringing together different datasets in a physical model to generate forecast information. "We use machine learning and AI in situations where maybe we don't understand the underlying relationships. There are plenty of places in our area of science and service delivery where that is possible."
Rakesh Bharania, Director of Humanitarian Impact Data at Salesforce.org, also sees the potential of artificial or augmented intelligence in decision support and areas where a lot of contextual knowledge is not required. "If you have a lot of data about a particular problem, then AI is certainly arguably much better than having humans going through that same mountain of data. AI can do very well in answering questions where there is a clear, right answer," he said.
One challenge in the humanitarian field, Bharania noted, is scaling a solution from a proof of concept to something mature, usable, and relevant. He also cautioned that data used for prediction is not objective and can impact results.
"It's going to be a collaboration between the private sector who typically are the technology experts and the humanitarians who have the mission to come together and actually focus on determining what the right applications are, and to do so in an ethical and effective and impactful manner," he said. Networks such as NetHope and Impactcloud are trying to build that space of cross-sectoral collaboration, he added.
Towards 'white box AI’
Yasunori Mochizuki, NEC Fellow at NEC Corporation, recalled how local governments in Japan relied on social networks and crowd-behaviour analyses for real-time decision-making in the aftermath of 2011’s Great East Japan Earthquake and resulting tsunami.
Their solution analyzed tweets to extract information and identify areas with heavy damage and need for immediate rescue, and integrated it with information provided by public agencies. "Tweets are challenging for computers to understand as the context is heavily compressed and expression varies from one user to another. It is for this reason that the most advanced class of natural language processing AI in the disaster domain was developed," Mochizuki explained.
Mochizuki sees the need for AI solutions in disaster risk reduction to provide management-oriented support, such as optimizing logistics and recovery tasks. This requires “white box AI” he said, also known as ‘explainable AI’. "While typical deep learning technology doesn't tell us why a certain result was obtained, white box AI gives not only the prediction and recommendation, but also the set of quantitative reasons why AI reached the given conclusion," he said.
Webinar host and moderator Muralee Thummarukudy, Operations Manager, Crisis Management Branch at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), also acknowledged the value of explainable AI. "It will be increasingly important that AI is able to explain the decisions transparently so that those who use or are subject to the outcome of these black box technologies would know why those decisions were taken," he said.
[Source: ITU]

ITU Forum addresses opportunities and challenges of 5G implementation in Europe

“Just as 4G deployment was carried out across Europe with a strong focus on leaving no one behind, it is now our duty to ensure that an enabling regulatory environment sustains the deployment of 5G in a way that connectivity is leveraged by all and for all,” said Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau at the ITU, as she welcomed participants of the ITU Regional Forum for Europe on 5G strategies, policies, and implementation.
The event was one of several milestones of the ITU Regional Initiative for Europe on broadband infrastructure, broadcasting and spectrum management.
Organized with the support of the Chancellery of The Prime Minister (KPRM) of the Republic of Poland, the Forum was opened by H.E. Mr. Marek Zagórski, Poland’s Secretary of State Government Plenipotentiary for Cybersecurity, who called for “connecting the unconnected” and “bridge the digital divide” as priorities in the context of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10 on reducing inequality. Mr. Zagórski went on to highlight Poland’s achievements in the provision of high-quality connectivity towards an Internet Society by 2025, and called for the urgent need to address misinformation around 5G in Europe and beyond.
5G strategies and implementation dynamics
More than 50 speakers provided participants with a comprehensive overview of the status of 5G rollout, focusing on regional and national strategies and policies as well as other ongoing implementation challenges relevant to stakeholders in the Europe region.
The first day of proceedings saw context-setting interventions from the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB) and the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau (BR), both of whom recognized excellent ITU cross-sectoral collaboration. Regional organizations and industry associations followed by discussing key priorities for the region, including the importance of international cooperation, industry collaboration, and regulation creating the necessary incentives for 5G deployment to deliver social and economic impact as well as the challenge of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF).
Sessions 2 and 3 offered a detailed picture of the status of 5G implementation both in EU and non-EU countries. Administrations and National Regulatory Authorities recognized the importance of the transition to 5G converging towards the notion of “connecting everyone and everything” and reiterated how international cooperation must ensure a consistent deployment of 5G across the region, especially in context of the post-COVID economic recovery.
In his second day keynote, 2020 BEREC Vice-chair Jeremy Godfrey highlighted the importance of sustainability and resilience in the post-COVID-19 world.
From the 5G commercialization and market development perspective, industry representatives from satellite, mobile and equipment providers noted in Session 4 that efforts and expectations should be placed in the business-to-business (B2B) rather than in the business-to-customer (B2C) segment, and should focus on innovation-driven public-private partnerships as well as on the industrial IoT environment enabling emergence of 5G applications and ecosystems.
During the Forum’s final session on the challenge of increasing public concern about RF-EMF, it was widely agreed that the focus should shift from the scientific evidence, which is already there, to elaborating new strategies for 5G and EMF risk communication, as some countries have already undertaken.
New publications, upcoming priorities and next steps
In the context of the Forum, and to prioritize topics for future consideration at the regional level, the ITU Office for Europe announced the publication of two background papers.
One includes a series of country profiles on 5G implementation dynamics in 18 non-EU countries in the Region, featuring the implementation of 5G strategies, frequency allocation, EMF regulation as well as private sector trials and commercialization at the country level. The country profiles are designed to act as a reference for decision-makers and as a platform to monitor progress in reducing intra-regional gaps.
The other background paper on 5G and electromagnetic fields (EMFs) responds to concerns of administrations observed across Europe by referencing scientific evidence and recommendations as well as outlining key challenges and open questions, including misinformation and the social and economic cost for societies resulting from holding back 5G. The paper aims to support administrations in their efforts to elaborate communications on 5G at the national level.
The virtual meeting also hosted representatives of international and regional organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the Nordic Council of Ministers, Eastern Partnership Electronic Communications Regulators Network (EaPeReg), the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) and a number of National Regulatory Authorities and ICT Ministries from both EU and non-EU countries as well as important industry associations such as the European Telecommunication Network Operators’ Association (ETNO), the EMEA Satellite Operators Association (ESOA), the European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA), DIGITALEUROPE, and GSMA.

Call to action on international standards

The Riyadh International Standards Summit concluded with the call to action for “each country to recognize, support, and adopt international standards to accelerate digital transformation in all sectors of the economy to help overcome global crises, such as COVID-19, and contribute towards the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”.
The Call to Action emphasizes international standards’ important role in the implementation of the United Nations’ Global Agenda aimed at achieving all 17 SDGs by 2030. “Today’s global health crisis has highlighted the need to continue investing in our digital future, through investments to drive infrastructure development, connect the unconnected, and build confidence and trust in digital technologies: elements which are all crucial to the achievement of the SDGs.”
Reflecting on the issues addressed, ISO Secretary-General Sergio Mujica saw a strong common spirit shared by all participants. “This recognition raises the bar on supporting international standards and illustrates the critical role each country can play in overcoming our common challenges and boosting synergies for all. We look forward to the international community answering the call to recognize, support and adopt international standards as a key instrument for economic and social development.”
The Summit enabled an integrated, introspected and exhaustive look at international standards developed by IEC, ISO and ITU, and their role in global trade as well as in social and economic development. Key stakeholders and decision makers were able to exchange experiences and perspectives on the importance of international standards in addressing shared fears and aspirations for the future.
“The call to action sends a real message in support of consensus-based international standards developed by IEC, ISO and ITU. It shows that, in these challenging moments of COVID-19, we are interdependent. Mutually beneficial global solutions can be found to our common global challenges,” said IEC General Secretary Philippe Metzger.
Digital technologies used to strengthen and accelerate the collective response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to enhance the ability to prevent and mitigate future crises, have been a frequent topic of this year’s G20. The call to action reinforces the need for countries to leverage international standards to deliver solutions to such global challenges.
“This pandemic calls for a robust international response. International standards developed by IEC, ISO and ITU go beyond national borders by connecting countries to global markets. They encompass global approaches that enable all countries to grow, thrive and support development for years to come,” concluded Chaesub Lee, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau.
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