ITU Should Steer Clear of Cybersecurity, Says ITI's Kriz

The ITU Plenipotentiary shouldn’t “initiate or authorize a treaty-making process or otherwise develop binding agreements on international security or cybersecurity,” said Danielle Kriz, Information Technology Industry Council global cybersecurity policy director, in a blog post Sunday. The ITU “lacks the expertise to deal with many technical and legal matters, including cybersecurity and cybercrime,” she said. The plenipotentiary should “oppose” any expansion of the ITU Standards Bureau into “new areas of cybersecurity standardization” and should avoid efforts to have the bureau partner with other standard development organizations, said Kriz. ITU member countries elected Houlin Zhao of China as the ITU’s new secretary-general last week (see 1410240047). Zhao will take over as secretary general Jan. 1.