IGF 2025 Open Forum #45 Advancing Cyber Resilience of Critical Infrastructure

The resilience of critical infrastructure is essential for global stability, as it underpins delivery of essential services within and across borders. Yet, these infrastructures are increasingly targeted by malicious cyber actors, posing risks to essential services that can cascade across regions and undermine international peace and security. Ensuring preparedness through robust cyber resilience measures is therefore vital. Effective protection of critical infrastructure requires overcoming silos between diplomatic and technical communities, strengthening national and cross-border CERT-to-CERT cooperation, fostering multi-stakeholder engagement, and stimulating diplomatic-technical communication channels. Additionally, ensuring effective national cyber incident response capabilities is key to mitigating ICT incidents affecting critical infrastructure. Developing such capabilities requires a clear national legal framework and mandate, well-defined administrative and operational structures, and adequate resources, including skilled personnel and technical capacities. Table-top exercises and scenario-based resilience planning can also play a crucial role in stress-testing incident response mechanisms, identifying vulnerabilities, and improving coordination across sectors. While national approaches will vary and adapt to their specific context, international cooperation – such as the exchange on good practices, confidence building measures, and the implementation of relevant international norms and international law – can enhance national and regional efforts. Building on the outcomes of the previous IGF Open Forum on safeguarding transnational critical infrastructure, this session will bring together experts from governments, civil society, and the private sector to take forward the four key ‘calls to action’ identified in that session. Specifically, the discussion will focus on identifying concrete pathways to: ● Strengthen diplomatic-technical collaboration by promoting cooperation between technical and diplomatic communities and enhancing cross-border CERT-to-CERT engagement. ● Institutionalize structured communication channels at the national level to facilitate timely responses to ICT incidents. ● Building national ICT incident response capacity by developing clear national legal frameworks, mandates, and response structures, while leveraging international cooperation to support capacity-building efforts. ● Identify pathways for multi-stakeholder cooperation, exchange of good practices, and enhancing information-sharing on emerging cyber threats to critical infrastructure through multilateral fora. By focusing on practical next steps, this session aims to move beyond problem identification toward actionable solutions that enhance the resilience of critical infrastructure and contribute to a more secure and stable digital future for all.

To ensure seamless interaction between onsite and online participants, after the interactive panel discussion, the organizers will prioritize questions and interventions from the online audience before turning to onsite participants, ensuring inclusivity and equal engagement across both groups. Utilizing Slido online polling tools, we will collect input and written resources on the subject of critical infrastructure protection from all attendees. This will provide opportunities for all attendees to actively contribute and exchange ideas on this topic. The organizers will also leverage complementary online tools and platforms such as Slido and online polling tools to collect input and encourage engagement during the session. These tools will enable us to collect questions, gather feedback, and facilitate interactive polls in real time, enhancing engagement and fostering a sense of community among participants, regardless of their location. By incorporating these interactive elements and encouraging active participation from both online and onsite attendees, we aim to create a dynamic and inclusive discussion where diverse perspectives are not only valued, heard, and but also recorded to subsequently inform formal UN deliberations within the OEWG and more broadly.