Italy joins ITU's cybersecurity network

The International Telecommunications Union/Impact global cybersecurity response centre (GRC) signed up its 37th member in less than a year this morning.

"Cybersecurity is now a priority on the institutional agenda," said Claudio Scajola, Italy's minister for economic development, pledging his support for the initiative.

Impact (International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats) set up the GRC in Cyberjaya, Malaysia, earlier this year as the international community's foremost cyberthreat resource to track and defend against cyberthreats.

Arbor Networks, F-Secure, Kaspersky Lab, Microsoft, SANS Institute, Secunia, Symantec, Sophos, SRI-MTC and Trend Micro, provide the GRC with live data to enable real-time analysis, aggregation, and dissemination of global cyberthreat information.

Impact's early warning system creates a virtual situation room for governments that lets Impact members identify and head off potential and imminent attacks before they can damage national networks. The GRC also provides a way for countries to work together to respond to cyberthreats.

Signing up on behalf of Italy, Poste Italiane CEO Massimo Sarmi said his firm was setting up a national cybersecurity centre of excellence (CSCOE), which will open later this year.

ITU secretary-general Hamadoun Touré said every country was now "critically dependent" on technology. "Loss of vital networks would quickly cripple any nation, and none is immune to cyberattack," he said.