IGF 2025 Day 0 Event #260 Securing basic Internet infrastructure

    Analysys Mason
    Amund Kvalbein, Analysys Mason, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group

    Speakers

    Elise Lindeberg Jayne Stowell Olaf Kolkman Michael Karimian Amund Kvalbein (moderator)

    Onsite Moderator
    Amund Kvalbein, Analysys Mason, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group
    Online Moderator
    Michael Kende, Analysys Mason, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group
    Rapporteur
    Harald Wium Lie, Analysys Mason, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group
    SDGs

    9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure


    Targets: 9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

    Format

    Roundtable

    We aim for an interactive workshop with engagement from the room. We expect to attract a combination of policymakers, industry leaders and subject matter experts with a deep understanding of the infrastructure landscape. A roundtable layout will best encourage participation.

    Duration (minutes)
    75
    Description

    The Internet is the world’s preferred platform for communication and data access. This success has partly been driven by the openness of the Internet architecture, where users can communicate across networks without regards to national borders or jurisdictions. Lately, the growing importance of the Internet has led to increased scrutiny of the core building blocks of the Internet infrastructure from authorities on national and regional levels. Central problems from a government perspective include the resilience of the physical network infrastructure that carries the Internet, and the perceived need for national control over infrastructure, platforms and data. The war in Ukraine and related threats against sea cables in the Baltic Sea and elsewhere has contributed to further increase the relevance of these topics.In this workshop, we will gather experts who are central in the efforts to build a robust Internet infrastructure including subsea fibre cables, data centres and regulatory frameworks. We will discuss challenges and threats to this infrastructure, particularly in the light of current geopolitical tensions. We will also look at recent efforts from the public and private sector to meet these challenges. Finally, we will discuss the interplay between national and regional regulations aimed at achieving increased local autonomy on one side, and the borderless Internet architecture on the other.

    We plan for an interactive agenda consisting of three parts: short introductions from each speaker, a short moderated discussion among the invited speakers, and finally an interactive session with questions from online and in-person participants. An online moderator will foster online discussion via chat during the session and relay highlights and questions in the room. We will consider showing the online chat room on a large screen in the room. We plan to use Mentimeter as a tool to engage the online audience through polls and questions during the session.