Riyadh – Sharikat Mubasher: Jeremy Fleming, former director at the UK Government Communications Headquarters said that genuine partnership between the public and private sector is crucial to ensure technology safety within cyberspace.

Speaking in a panel discussion titled “Pathways to De-escalation: Shared priorities for reducing tensions and advancing stability in cyberspace” on the first day of the Global Cybersecurity Forum (GCF) in Riyadh, Jeremy Fleming explained that the private sector has many of the levers needed to facilitate and highlight cyber threats effectively, according to Arab News.

This falls in line with the fact that on the domestic front, working with the private sector offers governments a chance to leverage insights and expertise to improve digital defense.

According to the Global Cybersecurity Index 2024, almost 63 percent of countries reported having inter-agency processes for cybersecurity within their governments.

Fleming said: “Big technology companies have as good a radar on what’s happening in cyberspace as governments do, and so that leads to two conclusions for me. The first is that there is no point in governments talking to each other about cyberspace. There has to be a genuine partnership with the private sector because the private sector has many of the levers we need to make sure that this technology is safe, to make sure that threats are called out”.

Fleming further highlighted the importance of effective communication within the sector.

He commented: “The second thought is that I spent the last 15 years thinking and talking about cyber, but if you ask me to give you a crisp definition of it, I’m still struggling. And so, I think we have a communication problem here in how we talk about cyber and how we engage our populations in making sure that it stays at the top of the agenda.The debate we’re having at the moment about artificial intelligence and particularly safety is a way into this.”

Also speaking during the same panel, the former President of the European Commission and former Prime Minister of Portugal, Jose Manuel Barroso, shed light on child protection within cyberspace.

He said: “There are some areas where I believe international cooperation can be relatively sincere; one of them is child protection. I don’t see any reason why the governments, in spite of geopolitical interests and differences, should not consider child protection a global public good.”

Barroso continued to highlight that cybercrime will increase because there are politically and economically malign actors, and some of the technologies, including AI, generative AI, and others, make the digital space even more difficult to manage.

Experts from technology, public policy, defense, and other sectors will gather in Riyadh for the two-day Global Cybersecurity Forum. 

The event will focus on fostering collaboration under the theme “Advancing Collective Action in Cyberspace,” with the goal of enhancing multi-stakeholder engagement and driving joint initiatives on key strategic priorities. 

The program will feature five core sub-themes, each addressing a crucial aspect of cybersecurity.