Preliminary Observations on proposals to add new articles on "... network and information security in ITRs"

Introduction

At the September 2011 meeting of the Council Working Group to Prepare for the 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications (CWG WCIT12), the People’s Republic of China submitted their contribution C59 that proposes to add new articles on “…network and information security in ITRs.” The United States has now had an opportunity to review the proposals from China and has the following preliminary observations.

Discussion

We seek clarification as to the intended scope of the proposed text. It is not clear from the English version of the contribution whether the proposed text intends to apply security considerations to the content of messages being transmitted over networks (hereafter referred to as “information security”) or intends only to apply to network infrastructure (hereafter referred to as “network security”). We also seek clarification as to where in the ITRs China proposes that these provisions would be added.