Building confidence and security in the use of ICTs

Excellences, distinguished delegates, colleagues, stakeholders, ladies and gentlemen, friends, good afternoon, it is a great honor and pleasure to be here today to contribute to the WSIS Forum. Cyber technology is pervasive and its key role is growing up every day, citizens consider cyber technology as a commodity. Mobile devices represent the most recent revolution in both technology and society, they are perceived as something different from computers even if they play, among the others, the same role and immediately they became part of our daily life, a wearable accessory as our wallet or wristwatch. Mobile devices are nowadays used by formerly digital divided citizens having no idea about potential drawbacks. As a side effect of globalisation and massive use of cyber services the number of crimes both perpetrated at local and global level is growing up. Dealing with perceived utility today we will mainly focus on the role of ICTs on the occasion of the crisis generated by the pandemic but we could extend the discussion even to natural or human disasters, warfare, criminal events and more. On the occasion of the 2015 WSIS Forum His .E. Mr Yasuo Sakamoto, Vice-Minister for Policy Coordination, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (Japan), said – “on the occasion of natural disasters ICT is the lifeblood to ensure citizen’s safety” and Mr. Sunil Bahadur Malla, Secretary, Ministry of Information and Communications in Nepal, said “ICTs were crucial in recovering the territory during and after the recent earthquake”. In case of crisis one of the aspects to be carefully considered is an affordable and easy access to the network infrastructures both wired or wireless. Strictly connected to this we find, in general, a significant market penetration of ICT due to smart phones, tablets, and laptops. Of course, a good network infrastructure and diffuse computational resources are not enough, a key role is played by human factors, digital-media literacy as well as, more in general, “digital awareness” of citizens. The pandemic was surely a significant stress test for the network infrastructure all-over the world, major part of the business activities was turned into on-line activities, as well as on-line education and, last but not less relevant, on-line entertainment / social relations. A relevant part of the activities within companies/enterprises, when and where possible, were turned on-line. This, as it happened in other sectors, outlined the existent gap between digitally savvy and old-fashioned structures. The key problem was mainly related to human capital more than technology. In the educational environment the pandemic impacted pupils and young people from kindergarten to university including hospitalised and disabled guys. Last but not less relevant, education sector faced some problems far before the pandemic due to the existent gap between traditional courses and new generations’ interests and abilities. We must not forget the key role played by social media, they were already a powerful tool among students both as information providers and social life active means, but on the occasion of the lockdown they became much more relevant to empower cooperative learning. ICTs and particularly audio/video connections based on smart phones and tablets were the key solution to alleviate the sense of loneliness and segregation that affected COVID-19 hospitalised citizens. Analysing the impact of the “switch to digital” due to the pandemic we explored different key aspects ranging between cybercrime, privacy and ethics. Security issues were mainly related to cheaters and typical scams boosted by the sudden on-line appearance of “newcomers”. As Mr Hans-Wilhelm Dünn, President, Cyber-Security Council Germany e.V. said on the occasion of WSIS: “During the current corona crisis, we see an increasement of cyberattacks. Therefore, everyone and especially older people should raise their awareness for such attacks”. Anyway, as a positive follow-up of the present crisis we can envisage different benefits: first of all, the acceleration of the switch to distant learning on the way to an improved resilience of the educational system but even an empowered knowledge transmission and acquisition from the end of the crisis onward. Now is the time to think about the future organization by taking advantage from the experience gained and adopting the best solutions to achieve a resilient society. To conclude the global lockdown represents a unique opportunity to bridge a number of gaps and reshape our future, thinking out of the box, identifying what is useless, deleting biases due to custom, rethinking processes and protocols. This is the time for action, the question is “Leading the change or missing the opportunity?