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OAS Supports Costa Rica in Development of a National Cyber Security Strategy

The Organization of American States (OAS) today completed two days of preparatory meetings in San Jose to support the development of a National Cyber Security Strategy in Costa Rica.

The meetings, organized with the support of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications (MICITT) of Costa Rica, focused on gathering information on and assessing the current cyber security situation in the country, by bringing together stakeholders from government, civil society, academia, law enforcement, the private sector, and critical infrastructure operators.

The opening ceremony of the meetings was presided over by Gisela Kopper, the Minister of Science, Technology and Telecommunications of Costa Rica, who highlighted that “cyber security should be considered from all stakeholders’ perspectives, because it affects everyone. As the government, our role is to strengthen cyber security and go beyond those measures, in order to protect one of the most important assets, which is information. It is important to consider other countries’ examples and have the support of organizations that can guide us toward a clear and defined path.” Minister Kopper added that “most attacks we receive are not originated in Costa Rica, but from abroad. Therefore we trust that through the mechanisms provided by the OAS that this network of countries will be strengthened, and with the support of new technological and legal tools, we will be able to tackle these outside attacks.” Minister Kopper also stressed the recent efforts to consolidate the Costa Rican national computer security incident response team (CSIRT), which will be launched in the upcoming weeks.

The OAS Cyber Security Program recognizes that each member state has different cyber security priorities and needs. Bearing this in mind, the OAS is coordinating a comprehensive and multi-stakeholder event, in which participants will have the opportunity to strongly collaborate throughout this process. Facilitated by OAS experts, the preparatory meetings include a presentation of the process to undertake the development of national cyber security framework, as well as working group discussions to better understand cyber security gaps and needs.

The first day of preparatory meetings began with participants responding to a survey developed by the OAS Cyber Security Program in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Global Cyber Security Capacity Center (GCSCC) at the University of Oxford. The information from this survey will be used to identify gaps and needs pertaining to cyber security capacity in the country. It is noteworthy that this survey is part of a tool aimed at providing an in-depth analysis of cyber security capabilities in the Americas.

The OAS Cyber Security Program has also been coordinating the visit of a representative of the Council of Europe to meet with legislative and legal authorities in the Costa Rica to discuss the accession requirements to the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime.

In addition to its work with Costa Rica, the OAS has helped Colombia, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago and more recently Jamaica (January 2015) to draft and adopt their national cyber security strategies. The OAS is also working with Dominica and Suriname on the development of their national cyber security action plans. The OAS Cyber Security efforts have been possible thanks to the financial contributions of the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-063/15