On 4-5 October 2019 Pugwash organized a workshop on “Cybersecurity in Latin America,” with the participation of experts from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, México, Uruguay, and Italy, in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina. Further support was provided by INVAP, the Global Security Foundation and KPMG (Brazil).
Summary conclusions include a commitment to collaborate for an open, secure, stable, accessible, democratic and inclusive global cyberspace, consistent with international and domestic law. The experts recalled the importance of the Charter of the United Nations and the role of international organizations in the construction of global policies for improving global cybersecurity and observed that the nature of cyberspace demands the involvement of multi-disciplinary teams and groups. They recognized the growing role of digital technologies in Latin America and the need to enhance regional collaboration to minimize risks and threats and maximize opportunities.
Since cyber vulnerabilities and threats are globally shared, Latin American countries should face the issue from a global perspective. The experts underscored the importance of developing mechanisms and legislation to protect Latin American countries from cyber threats, data breaches, disinformation and information manipulations for malicious purposes. They encouraged the construction of global cyber security monitoring systems to provide early warnings and the development of confidence-building measures. There was strong support for the development of convergent national digital and cybersecurity strategies in Latin America and harmonization of law regarding cyber issues and for the construction of a robust and reliable digital world in Latin America through collaboration, dialogue and agreements on communication infrastructure as well as coherent cyber security strategies. The need for increasing cyber awareness and responsibility by the main stakeholders (government, civil society, private sector, academia and the technical community) was stressed, as well as the development of human capital to meet the demands and benefits of the digital world and the need for capacity building and innovation by strengthening collaboration in education in all levels, specially with regard to children, vulnerable groups and research initiatives. The increase of the participation of women in cybersecurity activities was encouraged. There should be a commitment by Latin American countries to improving security, responsible behaviour of governmental and non-governmental actors in cyberspace.
Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs 