UN Cybersecurity Practitioners Gather at UNICC’s 2021 Common Secure Conference

13 December, 2021

13 December 2021
...
Credit: UNICC

Conference participants share insights on cyber practices and provide feedback on UNICC Common Secure services

UNICC’s cybersecurity solutions enable the United Nations family to enhance cyber resilience by strengthening governance, architecture and operational components of Clients’ cybersecurity programmes.

UNICC hosts an annual Common Secure Conference, bringing UNICC’s Clients and Partner Organizations together to share intelligence on cyber practices and to provide feedback on UNICC Common Secure services.

Nearly 200 participants from 33 organizations gathered for this year’s conference, held virtually between 16 and 24 November 2021.

Thanks to all participants involved in this year’s Common Secure conference, for the opportunity to learn how other teams deal with cyber incidents and for sharing invaluable insights over potential service improvements. We will continue proving the value of the Common Secure family giving back to this great community.

Bojan Simetić, Information Security Specialist, UNICC

Common Secure Conference agenda

The first week was open to cybersecurity practitioners from across UN Agencies, which includes many stakeholders and partners beyond the Common Secure membership.

The sessions were a blend of UN and cybersecurity vendor presentations, including speakers from Adobe, the Cloud Security Alliance, the CyberPeace Institute, Disruptive Consulting, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Spanish National Institute for Cybersecurity (INCIBE), Interpol, StrangeBee and the European Union’s Computer Emergency Response Team (EU-CERT).

UNICC Common Secure members had the opportunity to provide input on UNICC’s services during various sessions in the second week, including the ‘The Future of Common Secure’ panel discussion with speakers from IAEA, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and UN Women. Partners shared good feedback on current Common Secure services and identified some areas for improvement.

Cybersecurity experts from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), World Food Programme (WFP) and World Health Organization (WHO) also presented on a number of cyber matters during the second week.

According to a majority of participants, the Common Secure Conference helps them improve their skills and support cyber programme development with presentations relevant to their current work. Additionally, participants appreciate the opportunity to build relations with cybersecurity peers from other Agencies and beyond.

UNICC Cybersecurity services

In order to best protect its Clients and Partner Organizations, UNICC offers information security services including:

  • Governance and CISO Support
  • Common Secure Threat Intel
  • Security Operations Centre (CSOC), Security Incident and Event Management (CSIEM)
  • Vulnerability Management, Phishing Simulation, Penetration Testing,
  • Incident Response and Forensics
  • Information Security Awareness
  • Infrastructure and Network Support
  • PKI Digital Identity
  • Electronic Signature
  • Secure AuthN (federated authentication services) and more.

UNICC continues to develop its experience and expertise. UNICC was awarded a 2020 (and 2017) CSO50 Award for its Common Secure Information Security services. The UN Joint Inspection Unit reviewed the state of cybersecurity in the UN and recommended to leverage UNICC’s services.

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