Huawei Forum: Collaboration and Trust in a Shared Cyberspace

[Shanghai, China, February 22, 2021] On the sidelines of MWC Shanghai 2021, Huawei held a forum with the theme "Collaboration and Trust in a Shared Cyberspace". The event brought together representatives from various institutions worldwide, including the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Malaysian telecom regulator CyberSecurity Malaysia, China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), 5G Automotive Association (5GAA), Dutch operator VEON, and Fudan University. They were joined, online and offline, by about 500 participants from over 50 countries. The discussions revolved around promoting unified cyber security standards, and the participants called for an open, transparent, thriving global ecosystem that benefits all.

2020 was a year unlike any other. The pandemic has changed how organizations operate and how individuals live. Remote working, online learning, and telemedicine are here to stay. In a time of social distancing, networks are bringing us closer than ever. However, as digital technologies continue to gain traction, we find ourselves facing more and more cyber security challenges. Forum attendees stressed the importance of developing widely-accepted security standards, in order to drive consensus on the security of telecom networks and effectively ensure the security of equipment manufacturing and operations.

John Giusti, GSMA Chief Regulatory Officer, highlighted that NESAS, jointly defined by 3GPP and GSMA, provides an industry-wide security assurance framework to facilitate improvements in security levels across the mobile industry.

Chaesub Lee, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (ITU-T), added that cyberspace doesn't recognize national boundaries, and that its security needs internationally harmonized standards.

Kaan Terzioğlu, Co-CEO of VEON also pointed out that cybersecurity has been taken purely as a technical issue, but today we are witnessing the impact of the gap in digital awareness, literacy, and citizenship. Mr. Terzioğlu stressed that closing this gap is as critical to our security in the digital space as having the technologies to prevent breaches.

Dato' Ts Dr. Amirudin Abdul Wahab, CEO of CyberSecurity Malaysia shared the same view by stating that "Objective and fair digital security rules help ICT industry stakeholders carry out constructive competition and cooperation. Based on a shared vision, CSM uses a collaborative innovation public-private partnership scheme to mitigate cyber security risks, improve security protection, and guarantee social and economic prosperity and development together with all stakeholders."

Sean Yang, Director of Huawei's Global Cyber Security and Privacy Protection Officer (GSPO) Office emphasized that openness and inclusion are the keys to future prosperity in the digital world, and spoke about Huawei's desire for comprehensive collaboration on cyber security and privacy protection guided by a 4P strategy: Public, Private, Professional, and People.

The forum concluded with a panel discussion where the panelists discussed common standards, shared responsibilities, and a trusted ecosystem. It was agreed that without benchmarks, bias is inevitable. A scientific, objective, and unified security assessment approach for tech products and services will support stable and secure development of network technologies and industries worldwide. One of the panelists noted, "All responsible stakeholders should work together to ensure collaboration, mutual trust, and sharing in the cyberspace. We should strive to reduce, not increase trust deficit; strengthen, not weaken cooperation; and facilitate, not restrict sharing."

Panelists (from left to right): Moderator Afke Schaart, Sean Yang (Huawei), and Shen Yi (Fudan University); on the screen: Johannes Springer (5GAA), Miguel Bañon (testing organization representative), and Wang Zhiqin (CAICT)

COVID-19 has accelerated the pace of digitalization and made us keenly aware that cyber security and privacy protection are cornerstones of the future digital economy. There was broad agreement among forum attendees that in the digital era, developing vertical commercial applications and horizontal connectivity solutions requires all players to remain open and collaborative, provide components that best meet application requirements and technical and quality standards, and jointly build secure and trustworthy network infrastructure. Without cyber security and privacy protection, a thriving digital, intelligent world will be impossible.

MWC Shanghai 2021 runs from February 23 to February 25 in Shanghai, China. Huawei showcases its products and solutions at booths E10, E50, and E90 in Hall N1 in the Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC). For more information, please visit https://carrier.huawei.com/en/events/mwcs2021.