Press briefing: ITU and UNDRR

[Other language spoken]

Welcome to the press briefing of the UN in Geneva.

Today is Tuesday 5th of May and we have the great pleasure and honour to have with us 2 special guests.

At my right, Doreen Bogdan Martin, the ITU Secretary General, and on my left, Kamal Kishore, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction and the head of UNDRR.

We have the privilege to have our guests here to launch a joint report by ITUUNDRR and CSPO on when digital systems fail, the hidden risk of our digital world.

As you know, this is a prequel to the regular press briefing.

So at the end of this half hour, I will ask you to stay online on the same line and we will then continue with our regular briefing.

So I'd like to start now by giving the floor to the Reimbach, then Martin for her opening remarks.

Doreen, thank you.

Thank you so much, Alessandra and and good morning to those here in Geneva and also those joining online.

I thought I would start with a question.

What if our digital systems actually failed?

Right now we would have no streaming of this press conference.

Probably the lights in this room would go out outside the Palais.

Payment systems would eventually stall, emergency calls would struggle to get through, and reliable information on what to do would become harder to access.

Such a breakdown is more probable than you might think.

Digital systems have become so embedded, so embedded in our lives, that actually we barely notice them until they actually fail.

Failures can then escalate into major crises, with the most vulnerable experiencing the worst impacts.

It's time to start preparing, preparing for critical digital risks more intentionally.

And that's why today we're launching a new report entitled When Digital Systems Fail, the Hidden Risks of Our Digital World.

It's a collaborative effort.

As Alessandra has just mentioned, it's a collaborative effort by ITU, our partners UNDRR and SIENS PO, together with 12 senior experts from around the world.

And the purpose is to show how hidden digital failures can actually translate into real world disruptions.

Far from science fiction, this report details real risks that we've already observed on Earth, but also in space, from solar storms to submarine cable disruptions.

The common denominator of these unintentional disruptions is their tendency to cascade with impacts that spread across sectors like finance like healthcare, transport, energy and communications and this can often happen simultaneously.

Now the solution is obviously not to do away with digital because technology remains essential and essential driver of economic growth and innovation.

But sustained progress does demand better preparedness across 6 priority areas that have been outlined in the report.

It's about identifying and mapping critical digital risks so that we know what we're up against.

It's also about recognising unintentional disruptions as core priorities when it comes to risk management frameworks.

It's also about strengthening international standards.

Obviously, standards is something ITU cares a lot about, strengthening international standards and engaging in joint scenario planning across sectors and regions.

It's also about enabling communities to better absorb and also recover from digital disruptions.

It's also about building trust and shared situational awareness.

And finally, to translate early warnings into collective action at scale.

ITU, as the UN agency for digital technologies, will continue to raise awareness on critical risks so that these disruptions don't result in disaster.

This report builds on a number of ongoing activities in the ITU, including our work on submarine cable resilience with our international advisory body, which is about to conclude its work.

It also builds on artwork in the field of space sustainability.

We have our next annual forum coming up in October and on our early warnings for all, something that Kamal and I care deeply about.

And it's a great partnership that the ITU has with UNDRR, with IFRC and WMO.

Our goal is to ensure that digital systems are built on a solid foundation, a solid foundation of safety, of resilience and of trust.

With that, I thank you all for being here and look forward to the questions.

Thank you very much, Doreen.

And then I'll turn to my left, Kamal, your introductory remarks and then we'll open the floor to questions.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much and thank you everyone for being here this morning in person or online.

At the outset, I want to say that this has been really wonderful collaboration with ITU.

Thank you, Doreen and your team and Cyan Spur.

This is really an example of how the UN can bring together a complementary strengths, complementary areas of expertise.

You understand digital, we understand natural hazards and also reach out to academia Cyan Spur to really convene the best possible expertise from across the world to address common issues.

The first thing I want to say is that the notion of systemic risk, that risk is not just located in a location in a sector is something that you and DRR my office, your office for Disaster Risk Reduction has been talking for close to a decade now.

And this report is really an example of how the notion of systemic risk and challenges associated with managing that systemic risk really comes alive.

When it comes to risks to digital systems, there are unique challenges.

Many of these risks are invisible.

A lot of the times interdependencies are not fully recognised.

We in the in the disaster risk management practise have a very good way of assessing risk in location for a single hazard.

But how do you model risk from across multiple sectors across, you know, cascading effect is something new that we have to deal with.

And this is what the report, you know, tries to make come alive.

The Third Point in that sequence of invisible risks, hidden interdependencies, is that a lot of the times there is an implicit assumption that when the digital systems fail, we will have analogue systems to fall back on.

But those are no longer there.

The expertise, the equipment from that is getting outdated.

And that's not a very good assumption.

I think the way Doreen just highlighted the impacts, she really made it come alive.

I want to reinforce that by saying that close to 90% of the impact of natural hazards is not the first order impact.

It's really how it ripples across.

And it's not just for big systems like aviation or power.

It affects everyone.

It affects people in the north, people in the South, rich people, poor people.

Let me just illustrate that with an example.

If the power systems go down, telecom doesn't work.

Most telecom towers have a backup of nine hours.

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When telecom doesn't work, the ATM machines don't work.

When ATM machines don't work, people don't have access to their own cash.

So in far-flung areas, small markets stop to work because people don't have cash.

So, so it, it's, that's just one example.

You can see examples in many sectors, in many geographies.

There have been incidents like, you know, the, the, the volcanic eruptions off the coast of Tonga a few years ago, how it really affected the country for a very long time.

And this is in a country which doesn't the global interdependency on that part of the world are low.

Just imagine if it happens somewhere else and how it can affect not just hundreds of thousands, but 10s of millions or hundreds of millions of people.

However, we have through this report, which I highly recommend.

If you read one thing this week, please read this.

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It is not boring.

It's very interesting.

It is everything really make is very sort of alive, very real and it starts with three scenarios which are entirely they are sort of worst case scenarios, but entirely plausible.

They are not something which of just they are not imaginary.

And then it leads to some specific recommendations.

I during already highlighted the recommendations which span across multiple areas.

You know how we need to look at power systems, how do we need to look at undersea cabling, how do we look at the resilience of space based system satellites, how do we look at the resilience of data centres.

So in my view a very topical, very timely report which effects everyone on this planet and the recommendations that come out of it is something that we are going to be following up on.

And this is, as the report says, risk of a digital disaster is not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.

So we better start preparing for it now.

Thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

Thanks, Corinne, and thanks, Kamal for this introductory remark.

I would like now to open the floor to questions, starting with the room.

Robin is our correspondent of AFP.

[Other language spoken]

Overall, would you say that as a world we are poorly prepared or badly prepared for things going wrong?

And secondly, how, how vulnerable are the digital world's systems to bad actors, people deliberately trying to damage them?

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So I think it's very clear that we are not adequately prepared for cascading impacts on digital, digital infrastructure of the world.

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We understand what will happen in location.

We know if there is a natural hazard like a severe cyclone which exceeds the wind speed of 200 kilometres per hour in a particular location.

We know how the systems will be affected.

But how the systems systemic impact cascades, we haven't considered that fully.

I think this is what the report makes come alive through three cases, one of a solar storm, one of extreme heat and one of I forget, you can look into the report.

So there are three scenarios and these are entirely sort of plausible scenarios through which it comes alive.

Now your question on the bad intentions, that's not the scope of this report.

This report really looks at what one would call non malevolent threats such as threats from natural hazards.

We've seen examples of that in the last 10 years, but the worst that could happen hasn't happened yet.

Well, perhaps just to to complement what what Kamal has has just mentioned and the focus of this report, as he has just stressed is, is the non intentional digital disruptions.

And I think to his point, we're definitely not as prepared as we should be.

And the purpose of this report is to highlight what countries, what communities, what the private sector can do.

It's not a single actor or a single country that can solve this alone.

And I think also to your point, Kamal, about kind of it's not, it's, this is something that's likely going to happen and it has happened and the report traces and it is a a good page Turner.

It does trace in terms of history how this has already happened.

And what was the effect of those disruptions going back actually to before my organisation was created in 1865, actually going back to one of the first known kind of disruptions.

It wasn't digital back at the time, but it was in 1859 and it's known as the Carrington Event.

It was a result of a solar storm that disrupted the Telegraph.

So because of this solar storm, there were like sparks coming out of the telegraphs.

And that was kind of, that was in terms of of the areas that we're looking at a good example back in the day of the Telegraph, which for us was kind of the Internet back in the day, right?

But a Telegraph and because of this solar storm, it was severely damaged and disrupted.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for taking my question and I confirm the report was very, very interesting.

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My first one will be about the Member States.

Have you already reaching out to some Member States and do you see some willingness to invest or to develop like a programme or research?

And if you have an idea of 1 country that is willing to take the lead?

And my second questions is more like you developed many ideas of how we could invest for the system and try to find solution more at the macro level.

But I'm quite wondering what would you recommend for the people themselves?

How could they get prepared or if they have to have like a kid at home of essential things to to keep in case of a big digital pandemic?

[Other language spoken]

Well, the report was just released as we began this this press conference, but we have had an opportunity to share, give a kind of sneak previews to our Member States.

The ITU has 194 Member states plus 1000 private sector companies and we have been kind of building excitement around the release of this report.

I also wanted to mention that the report is closely tied to our anniversary day, which is May 17th.

And so the theme of our anniversary day is actually digital Lifeline.

So this is also quite, quite linked.

But to the point about which Member States, I also wanted to mention it's closely linked to some of our technical studies.

And so in the ITU, we have study groups.

So we have a study group that's looking at resilience and reliability.

We have a study group that's looking at security.

And we also have a study group in our radio communications Bureau that's looking at, we call it science services.

So when it comes to space, space weather and things like like solar storms, that work is already being looked at and it's being looked at closely by I would say the whole of the membership, the private sector participates and many member States and then perhaps come out if you want to take the preparedness part of the question.

Thank you very much Doreen.

If you look at the sixth set of recommendations in the report, two of them talk about societal resilience and building trust.

That's really a people centred approach.

So what people need to do in terms of having some analogue skills systems as a backup and not take, you know, the digital services that they get for granted all the time.

Communication between communities and instruments of state or institutions of state that provide services, a trust between them, transparency about the kind of risks they have and what would be done if those risks manifest into disasters.

I think all of that needs to happen, but it is important to underline that it is not just what happens at the local level.

It's really systemic.

Everyone has a role in it.

We have to work with systems that operate satellites, that manage cable systems, that manage data centres that manage power, but at the same time raise awareness of that the risks that exist and and ask communities to take preparatory action actions like the ones that I just outlined.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

I'll we have a few minutes more for questions if there is any in the room or let me look at the platform.

[Other language spoken]

Is there any question for our speakers?

Let me see if there's any hand that comes up.

I don't see any.

So that is a good sign means that the report is clear and that your introduction was comprehensive.

So if this is the case, I would like to really thank very much our speakers and really for this important report and for coming to to brief the the Geneva press corps.

I'll ask you to stay on the line because we will continue in a moment with the regular press briefing while I say goodbye to our guests and we will continue just immediately after.

Thank you very much.

Just stay on the line for me.

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