Tonga Chairs PaCSON’s 3rd Annual General Meeting and Conference

28^th May 2021 Tonga assumes the Chair role of the Pacific Cyber Security Operation Network also known as PaCSON.  This is after Tonga was elected as Incoming Chair during the last Annual General Meeting (AGM) which was held in Nuku’alofa in 2019.

Addressing the Meeting, CEO for MEIDECC Mr. Paula Pouvalu Ma’u on behalf of the Government of Tonga expressed his gratitude to all members of PaCSON for entrusting Tonga to be Chair for the year 2021 to 2022.

Tonga will be joined in the Executive Committee of PaCSON by Vanuatu as Incoming Chair and Cook Islands as Deputy Chair.

PaCSON is a commitment by the Government of Australia established in 2018, to assist the Indo-Pacific region to develop capacities which address cyber threats, strengthen cyber security and combat cybercrime.

In her Opening of the AGM, the Head of the Australia Cyber Security Center Ms Abigail Bradshaw CSC affirmed Australia’s commitment to working with regional partners to advance cyberspace interests.

The AGM and Conference 2021 was carried out virtually from Tuesday, May 25^th – May 27^th, the AGM discussed priorities for the network under different efforts and themes.  These efforts and themes are aligned to the PaCSON Vision – “Improve cyber security capabilities and readiness across the Pacific through cooperation and collaboration among those responsible for coordinating national responses to cyber security incidents.”

Participants discussed different topics including reports from working groups on the status of activities conducted in the past year which includes Awareness Raising, Capacity Building and Communications.

As part of the Conference, workshops on a number of topics around Cyber Security were also delivered and facilitated by experts from the members of PaCSON as well as partners.

The launching of Samoa’s national Computer Emergency Response Team (SamCERT) was one of the highlights of the three-day program.  This will be the sixth CERT to have been established in the Pacific region.  Tonga’s national Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT Tonga) was established in July 2016, at the time the second only to Australia in the region.

Membership of PaCSON includes representatives from Australia, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

ENDS

Issued by the Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change and Communications