Statement on the Security of Information and Communications Infrastructures

Recalling the APEC Economic Leaders' call for strengthening APEC activities in the area of critical sector protection, including telecommunications, made in their Statement on Counter Terrorism at Shanghai on 21 October 2001;

Expressing their commitment to the protection of information and communications infrastructures within the APEC region and the importance of developing domestic and regional strategies because these infrastructures are interconnected;

Noting the importance of establishing a legal basis to address the criminal misuse of information technologies and law enforcement cooperation in combating that misuse;

Affirming the important role of the private sector in protecting information and communications infrastructures, and the importance of developing government-private sector partnerships for the protection of these infrastructures;

Recognizing the role of computer emergency response teams in addressing security incidents and exchanging information on threats, vulnerabilities, and responses; and the need to establish such teams within all APEC economies and facilitate the exchange of information among them;

Noting the work of other international organizations in this area, in particular the Cyber Crime Convention of the Council of Europe and the revision of the OECD Guidelines for the Security of Information Systems;

Recognizing the need to raise awareness about security among owners, operators, and users of information and communications infrastructures at all levels;

Noting the importance of certification procedures and programs for information technology (IT) security professionals;

Noting the importance of IT security standards and best practice guides to the protection of information and communications infrastructures, and encouraging the TEL to finalize and disseminate the APEC compendium of IT security standards and best practices now being developed;

Further noting the importance of encryption to security and authentication, recalling the work done by the TEL in the area of authentication and encouraging the inclusion of encryption policy in its work;