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Gauging A Global Commitment To Digital Safety

As we think about the overall human digital security, there are few metrics that can be comprehensive and can serve as a standard to create strong benchmarks. One of the indices that I have watched mature over the last several years is the Global Cybersecurity index developed by the ITU . The goal of this extensive measurement is to create a benchmark for countries to measure their commitment to security, raise awareness and create a strong foundation domestically.

The index is comprised of several critical pillars: technical measures undertaken (frameworks, institutions); organizational efforts deployed (national strategies, responsible agencies); capacity building activities (public awareness, professional training, R&D, academic curricular); cooperation (bilateral, multilateral, public private partnerships); legal measures (regulations). The bulk of the data is collected through surveys, as well as public data.

The goal goes far beyond data collection: “In order to foster a global culture of cybersecurity and its integration at the core of information and communication technologies, the GCI is aiming towards minimizing the visible gap in the level of cybersecurity engagement between different regions around the world”.

Looking at the list of those countries that appeared on the top over the last year, most commitments are made overwhelmingly in North America and most of Europe. Selected countries in Asia have also demonstrated high commitment in all the five pillars.

Here is the global outlook for the top ten countries according to the normalized score: UK, USA, France, Lithuania, Estonia, Singapore, Spain, Malaysia, Norway, Canada, Australia.

ITU GCI heat map

www.itu.int The most recent data is as of 2018. It remains to be seen how the trends evolves in the near term.