Foreword

Information economy, among other elements, heavily depends on the information security. Without the latter, the former cannot sustain its development. On the other hand, information security depends on technology development.

Developing and least developed countries may face significant challenges in meeting the requirements of the global market place without information security. The lack of technology development in information security, therefore, may constitute a serious infrastructure deficiency that is enlarging the digital divide.

The Asia-Pacific region has recently become the world leader in mobile phone connectivity. It represents more than half in mobile phone consumption in the world, which can boost the economic and social development in an unprecedented manner.

However, without information security overall performance of information economy in the region may not render desired results. It is against this background, ICT Policy Section of UNESCAP’s ICST Division prepared this publication with an aim of providing key aspects of information security for an audience mainly composed of policy and decision makers.

This publication is destined to major development actors of the information society, especially policymakers for information economy. It deals with key economic, legal, and social issues related to information security. The purpose of it is to help countries get prepared to face issues and challenges linked to information and communication technologies (ICT) deployment, uses and misuses.

Acknowledgements

The present publication was prepared under the overall direction of Siva Thampi, Director of UNESCAP’s ICST Division with the technical guidance of, Daewon Choi, Chief of ICTPS. It was written by Professor S. Ghernaouti-Hélie, full professor of the University of Lausanne - Faculty of Business and Economics, Switzerland. She wishes to thank for the support provided by ICTPS team composed of D.Choi, S.Din, C.Basocak, JM Sadoul from UNESCAP, and Igli Tashi, research assistant at the University of Lausanne.

Mrs. Solange Ghernaouti – Hélie is full professor of the University of Lausanne - Faculty of Business and Economics. Previously she was, network architect, ISO standardisation expert, and marketing product manager for several IT international companies. Solange Ghernaouti-Hélie is an internationally renowned security expert, speaker and author. She is a High Level Expert Group (HLEG) individual member for the Global Cybersecurity Agenda at ITU - International Telecommunication Union.
She is the author of 16 books including the ITU reference guide Cybersecurity for developing countries (ITU 06) presented at the world telecommunication development conference at Doha in March 06 (french, english, arabic, chinese, spanish versions available). She has already written over 130 papers on telecommunication network strategies and technologies and on information technologies security issues.
She has founded at the University of Lausanne, the research group SeDgE - SEcurity in DiGital Environments dealing with socio-economic, managerial, legal, and technological dimensions of information infrastructure security and computer related crime. She is co-founder of the Interdisciplinary Master in Law, Crime and IT security. She is invited professor of the Sociology Department of the University of Geneva for a master course “Internet and Society” and is often consulted on security strategies and policies issues for governmental agencies, law enforcement agencies or private institutions.