India-US dialogue on cyber information security
Wednesday, 13 November 2002, 20:30 IST
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WASHINGTON: Wipro chairman Azim Premji has applauded the US national cyber security approach and said that a similar initiative needed to be developed in India. He proposed a joint effort in this direction between the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the US-India Business Council (USIBC), the US Chamber of Commerce and others. Premji also highlighted industry participation in cyber security during a high level workshop on "Information Security and Business Development: Building Indo-US Public-Private Partnerships" organized here by CII and USIBC. "We believe that India-US cooperation should quite naturally set the standard for the world," asserted Vijay Thadani, head of the CII's US chapter. "The White House public-private partnership strategy gives us an opportunity to leapfrog in developing a similar approach in India, and a basis on which to develop India-US industry leadership", said Thadani. Thadani and USIBC executive director Michael T. Clark identified two main purposes of the workshop first, to foster a candid discussion between US government officials and US and Indian companies on the level of security and the practices required to safeguard the rapidly increasing flows of data between the two countries second, to determine how the draft national cyber security strategy proposed by the White House's Critical infrastructure protection board could be further developed in the India-US context. The US government was represented by Howard Schmidt, vice-chairman of the president's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board and Paul Kurtz, senior director, Cyberspace Security, National Security Council, who leads a bilateral initiative to spur greater cooperation between industry and government in both countries. Schmidt reviewed the White House information security strategy, an approach that relies on strong industry leadership to build a "culture of security". Kurtz detailed four areas of focus in government-to-government discussions, a dialogue that is enabling bilateral cooperation in legal frameworks, security, defense, and counter-terrorism issues. But he noted the absence of industry in this cooperation, and pledged to support the organizers' efforts to organize a major bilateral industry initiative. CII will organize a major conference in India on the theme of "Setting the Global Standard in Information Security" with senior officials, association heads and industry leaders from both countries in India. The USIBC pledged to host a series of seminars across the US to showcase the business benefits of India-US technology and security cooperation.
Source: IANS
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