Session
Dynamic Coalition on Community Connectivity
Roundtable
Duration (minutes): 90
Format description: The onsite moderator will explain the discussion topic and introduce speakers and subject matter experts, who will then engage in a roundtable conversation. We are inviting a diverse group of speakers from different geographies and different stakeholder groups.
The session will be divided in two parts, and after each part the moderators (onsite and online) will open the discussion for the audience, and facilitate the conversation. At the end, each speaker will be given an opportunity to summarize major takeaways from the discussion.
This session will explore the role of cybersecurity in community networks, an often overlooked yet critical aspect of providing safe communications to vulnerable communities, and protecting the “commons” type of infrastructure.
The session will be the occasion to launch the 2024 DC3 Outcome report dedicated to “Cybersecurity in Community Networks: Securing the Commons” which will be released as open access.
Participants will discuss different challenges and perceptions of cybersecurity, and how to integrate those in the wider policy discussions. This includes the importance of resilience of infrastructure and of access as a whole. While security is often overlooked, this session will demonstrate that ensuring that community networks are stable, reliable, and secure is paramount.
Participants will provide concrete examples from the field, and provide guidance for community network practitioners on how to strengthen various dimensions of their cybersecurity efforts - both in terms of protecting the individuals, and protecting the infrastructure. The aim is to collect good practices on information security, infrastructure security, and cybersecurity capacity building from and for community networks.
In addition, the session will address the importance of meaningful connectivity in the context of digital health and remote access to health information. The focus on security is highly relevant: there are many security and misinformation issues in the field of health technologies.
The IGF 2024 session of the Dynamic Coalition on Community Connectivity (DC3) will focus on exploring the connection between community networks and cybersecurity. Session participants will provide their standpoints and share experiences and good practices to be consolidated into an exploratory paper on Cybersecurity in Community Networks, with a particular focus on securing the commons, elaborated as a 2024 DC3 Outcome.
Luca Belli, FGV-CTS, civil society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Senka Hadzic, Research ICT Africa, civil society, African group
Amali de Silva-Mitchell, North America
Renata Santoyo, ANATEL Brazil - government, Latin America and Caribbean (onsite)
Leandro Navarro, guifi.net Spain - technical community, WEOG (online)
Talant Sultanov, Global Digital Inclusion Partnership (GDIP) - civil society, Asia-Pacific (onsite)
Osama Manzar, Digital Empowerment Foundation, India - civil society, Asia-Pacific (onsite)
Josephine Miliza, APC, Kenya - civil society, Africa (onsite)
Houda Chihi, Telecom Tunisia - private sector, MENA region (online)
Amado Espinosa, DC-DDHT - civil society, Latin America (online)
Luca Belli
Amali de Silva-Mitchell and Jorn Erbguth
Senka Hadzic
9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
9.1
9.a
Targets: Community networks provide sustainable and resilient infrastructure with a focus on affordable and equitable access for all (SDG 9).
Report
1) Stakeholders agreed upon the existence of multiple cybersecurity risks in community networks. 2) Participants stressed the need for a multistakeholder approach to tackle cybersecurity challenges in community networks. 3) Need for cybersecurity support for digital health end users (who can be patients or small entities such as doctor practices, pharmacies, testers etc.).
DC3 call to action: - Participants called for strong cybersecurity policies to be adopted by community networks. - Participants called for increased cybersecurity capacity building efforts in community networks. DCDDHT call to action: - Investment in infrastructure at all levels. - Opportunity to bundle services together to reduce costs.