Distinguished Ambassadors and Delegates of the Permanent Missions to the OAS;

Ms. Anne Witkowski, Deputy Coordinator for Homeland Security and Multilateral Affairs, U.S. Department of State;
Secretary of Administration and Finance, Gerald Anderson;
Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Committee against Terrorism, Neil Klopfenstein;
Ladies and Gentlemen:

We gather here to celebrate an important step that has been taken by the Organization of American States in its evolving quest to help Member States strengthen cyber security and cyber incident response capacities. As new technologies emerge to facilitate attacks on our networks, so must the tools that we employ to train our security experts in the field. The CICTE Secretariat, with the support of the Department of Information Technology (DOITS) and experts from several Member States, has developed a mobile lab that will be used to train incident response personnel in the Americas.

Even with new tools and technologies, now more than ever there is a need to understand the severity of the cyber threats we are all facing together.

Cyber security threats and vulnerabilities are currently affecting people from all walks of life in the Americas and beyond. Just following news events, we can perceive the increasing number of cyber security incidents occurring around the world, such as attacks against the servers of governments and private companies. During the past several years we have witnessed that new, unpredictable threats to the critical information infrastructure of our nations are happening with frightening frequency, and sometimes with far-reaching and potentially disastrous consequences.

It is important to remember that these attacks do not discriminate between nations big or small, public or private entities. The world has never been more interconnected and dependent on the Internet, its networks, and complex information systems. Countless services on which we rely and largely take for granted, including energy, telecommunications, banks, transportation, security, social services, and many other systems, depend on the Internet and its connected networks to function properly. The Internet has allowed business to flourish, and has been a tremendous vehicle for innovation and economic growth, having a positive impact on all the citizens of the Americas.

The security gaps in our critical information infrastructure, however, have also yielded opportunities for criminal, and even terrorist, exploitation. Aware of these ever-changing threats to our networks, the governments of the Americas have recently renewed their commitment to strengthening cyber security in the region.

Last March at the Twelfth Regular Session of CICTE, all 34 OAS Member States adopted what became known as the “Declaration on Strengthening Cyber Security in the Americas”. This Declaration, whose genesis lay with the 2004 Comprehensive Inter-American Cyber Security Strategy, calls on Member States to strengthen cyber security within their countries and in the region.

It calls on countries to focus on two concepts: prevention and resilience, and stresses the importance of building national and regional capabilities to resist cyber attacks, recover from damaging incidents, and continue functioning during an attack.

Specifically, it urges OAS Member States: 1) to develop National Cyber Security Strategies; 2) to establish national Computer Security Incident Response Teams, known as CSIRTs; 3) to strengthen international and hemispheric cooperation mechanisms in cyber security; and 4) to work with the private sector to protect critical communications infrastructure. Emphasis is placed on critical information and communications technologies, and essential government institutions and services such as national security, energy, finance, transportation, and telecommunications.

We are meeting today to share with you a concrete example of the fruit of the efforts that the OAS has undertaken following the mandates of this declaration: a state-of-the-art Mobile Laboratory, acquired thanks to the financial support of the Government of the United States, which we will visit in a few minutes to appreciate its potential impact. The Mobile Lab represents just one focus of the multi-faceted approach the CICTE Secretariat has adopted in carrying out its mission. While policy and strategy issues are a key component of the Cyber Security Program, the new Mobile Lab showcases how far the Cyber Security Program is reaching to explore new avenues to strengthen capacity building, coordination, technical training and specialization within Member States.

The OAS Cyber Lab will provide tremendous mobility and flexibility in the development and implementation of Cyber Security Crisis Management Exercises (CMEs) in the OAS Member States. These CMEs will improve the incident response capacities and coordination of efforts of the multiple stakeholders involved in managing cyber security emergencies.

The simulations run on the lab will complement and improve the ability of the OAS to support its Member States in preventing, detecting, deterring, and mitigating the effects of cyber attacks, and in the pursuit and application of the law to those responsible for them.

In summary, the OAS’ lab will also allow for an increased impact of any simulations, because now the private sector, academia, civil society and government authorities are able to gather in one place and seamlessly work together in responding to and managing a large scale cyber attack. This will create a space where public officials, social and business leaders, academics and experts from the Member States can receive a wide range of cyber security related training.

I would like to highlight that the development of this lab and these Crisis Management Exercises have been “in house” efforts led by the CICTE Secretariat, with the support of the Department of Information and Technology Services (DOITS) and experts from the Hemispheric Network of Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs) of the Americas. Allow me to express the gratitude of the OAS to the governments of the United States and Canada, that with their unwavering support and funding have made the OAS Cyber Security Program a success.

Thank you.