Session
Organizer 1: John Hering, Microsoft
Organizer 2: Kaja Ciglic, Microsoft
Organizer 3: ,
Speaker 1: Mitnick Drew, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 2: Lea Kaspar, Civil Society, Eastern European Group
Speaker 3: Deborah Brown, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 4: Alejandro Becerra, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Angela McKay, Microsoft
Kaja Ciglic
John Hering
Round Table - 90 Min
The speakers have been chosen based on their knowledge and work with the recently-signed Cybersecurity Tech Accord and/or with civil society, as well as for their diversity of perspectives. The Tech Accord is committed to bringing together the diversity of companies who work across the industry to facilitate and innovate the online world, and our speakers reflect the varying perspectives of companies responsible for different aspects of technology.
All the speakers will be initially given 5 minutes to share their experiences with the Tech Accord, or working in civil society, and present their views through a managed set of questions and answers with the moderator to familiarize the audience with the work and ambitions of the Tech Accord. The moderator will ensure that the workshop facilitates authentic engagement with participants looking to gain a better understanding of the Tech Accord and find opportunities for collaboration.
The Cybersecurity Tech Accord is intended to reflect the global diversity of the tech industry, and in that spirit this round table discussion will intend to capture the diversity of civil society actors engaging in this space. To that end, we will seek to ensure that speakers include perspectives from civil society and industry working around the world, and that a diversity of voices are heard in the room during the workshop.
Gender balance has also been taken into account in speaker choices and each speaker will bring unique expertise and experience to the topics discussed. The moderator will be made aware of his or her respective responsibility to ensure that efforts are made to include all the voices in the room to enrich the discussion.
Issues to be discussed:
Amidst the professionalization of criminal activity online, and the escalating nature of state-sponsored offensive cyber capabilities, companies from every corner of the tech sector came together in April 2018 to establish the Cybersecurity Tech Accord. Based around four foundational cybersecurity principles, the largest-ever collection of tech industry companies have banded together to clearly define the industry’s role in protecting users and customers from growing threats online.
Tech Accord signatories have been meeting and working together since its launch to identify areas for collaboration and to work to protect users and customers around the globe. A key priority moving forward, to maximize the impact of the Accord, will be finding meaningful opportunities to partner with and support the efforts of civil society groups who perform so much of the critical research and project-based work to advance an agenda that promotes, protects, and expands a free, open and secure internet. The round table will allow signatories to discuss their engagement with the Tech Accord and highlight work it has accomplished thus far before spending most of its time facilitating an exchange of ideas and capturing feedback and suggestions from members of civil society who choose to participate. The dynamic and diverse nature of participants at IGF will create an ideal environment to facilitate this dialogue between the Tech Accord and civil society.
Agenda:
The session will open with a short, moderated discussion with the invited speakers that will cover the intentions of the Tech Accord, its accomplishments in the months since its founding, as well as the plans for the future and any ongoing collaboration with civil society. (20 min)
Speakers will be asked to provide an overview of:
The state of affairs for the Tech Accord, including expansions, or planned expansions in signatories.
The accomplishments of the Accord in its first few months.
The areas of focus they see as best-suited to the Tech Accord.
How they have seen, or would like to see, greater involvement with civil society organizations.
The workshop will be structured in a round table fashion, with participants from civil society encouraged to then engage in an interactive discussion that focuses on the following (60 min):
o Open questions about the structure or intentions of the Tech Accord
o Feedback they can provide on the mandate of the organization and the scope of it, highlighting issue areas that should be included that aren’t, or where it seems inappropriate for the Tech Accord to engage.
o What are areas of intensive civil society engagement currently that would benefit from the attention and support of the Tech Accord and its signatory companies? How should those partnerships be characterized to maximize impact?
o Looking forward, how should the Tech Accord structure its engagement with civil society? Should civil society groups be incorporated into the governance structure of the Tech Accord in some fashion? Should they be allowed to join as signatories? Are there opportunities for a parallel civil society organization that has similar aims and intentions to run in parallel and in partnership with the Tech Accord?
The moderator will have 10 minutes to sum-up discussion and close session.
The panelists selected have been chosen for their work as company representatives as part of the Cybersecurity Tech Accord, or for their roles working on various cybersecurity projects as part of global civil society groups. Following the panel’s initial statements, the moderator will spend the bulk of the workshop facilitating discussions with workshop attendees, who will be encouraged to ask questions and provide feedback about how civil society could better engage with the Tech Accord moving forward.
To facilitate an engaging discussion, the following will be ensured:
- Reading materials on the Tech Accord will be provided for participants ahead of time, and handouts will be available at the outset of the session which highlight the work the Tech Accord has engaged in since its founding, as well as a restatement of the founding principles.
- An online discussion will be moderated by the organizers in the weeks before the event to stimulate interest and solicit questions and input of particular interest
- While the workshop will be in English, PowerPoint slides summarizing positions and insights of panelists will be projected to support the engagement of those for whom English is not native.
- The moderator selected will be an expert not only in the topic, but well versed in leading multi-stakeholder discussions and will actively encourage participation from the audience. He or she will work closely with the online moderator to ensure those audiences are equally brought into the debate.
The Cybersecurity Tech Accord, signed in April 2018, is the largest collection of tech industry companies to ever come together around common principles to protect users and customers in cyberspace. Beyond working collaboratively within the group, it is critical to ask how this industry association can work alongside civil society organizations to advance the principles of the accord and protect internet users around the world.
The round table discussion will share more about the nature of the Tech Accord and the activities it has helped facilitate and support, while at the same time soliciting feedback from participants working in civil society on opportunities for collaboration and cooperation on projects aimed at securing the online environment.
Online moderator will work closely with the on-site moderator to prepare the session ahead of time, ensuring that they are aware of the questions and the topic areas that will be raised in the room. The online moderator will also facilitate discussion ahead of the event, requesting questions and driving engagement and interest in the session on social media platforms, such as Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as on the websites of the co-organizers.
During the session itself, the moderator will facilitate the discussion online, highlighting the key points raised, as well as responding to questions received online and ensuring that they are raised in the room. Online attendees will have a separate queue and microphone, which will rotate equally with the mics in the room.
Following the session, the speakers will all be available for a moderated Q&A on Twitter.
Reference Document: https://cybertechaccord.org/accord/