Author: Christina Batcheler

George Mason University CyberSecurity Innovation Forum Announces Speakers for September 28 Event

Please Join us for The George Mason University Cybersecurity Innovation Forum

As with previous events, the Forum will consist of a series of 15-20 minute case study presentations by cybersecurity experts and technology innovators followed by a Q&A.

The focus of the meetings is on cybersecurity innovation including innovation rationale and motivation, technology, metrics, and lessons learned.

We are excited to announce our speakers will be:

Heather Dahl, Co-Founder and CEO of Indico.tech
Jamil Jaffer, Founder & Executive Director, National Security Institute; Director, National Security Law & Policy Program; Assistant Professor of Law, George Mason University

Heather C. Dahl is the co-founder and CEO of Indico.tech. Through her vision and leadership, Indicio has become a global leader in decentralized identity, launching a blockchain-based distributed network on five continents, creating the first implementation of a complete ecosystem for sharing privacy-preserving digital health credentials, which was donated to Linux Foundation Public Health for use by public health agencies across the world, and developing a series of innovations in software to manage identity and data sharing.

For more information: https://indicio.tech/heather-c-dahl-biography/

Jamil Jaffer – Founder & Executive Director, National Security Institute; Director, National Security Law & Policy Program; Assistant Professor of Law, George Mason University

Jamil currently serves as Founder and Executive Director of the National Security Institute and as an Assistant Professor of Law and Director of the National Security Law & Policy Program at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, where he teaches classes on counterterrorism, intelligence, surveillance, cybersecurity, and other national security matters, as well as a summer course in Padua, Italy with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch. Jamil is also affiliated with Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation and previously served as a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution from 2016 – 2019.

For more information: https://www.law.gmu.edu/faculty/directory/fulltime/jaffer_jamil_n

Please RSVP Here – https://www.eventbrite.com/e/george-mason-university-cybersecurity-innovation-forum-registration-166169041075

George Mason University’s (GMU) Volgenau School of Engineering’s CARE and School of Business sponsor the events.

The Cybersecurity Innovation Forum Series is generously supported by Accenture.

CIOs and IT Executive Leadership – From Engineering Education to Innovations in ICT and Technology Webinar with Dr. J.P. Auffret

This article comes from The International Federation of Engineering Education Societies Webinar Series.

The rapid development and adoption of mobiles and Internet have had major impacts on society and ICT is now a key component of national development in healthcare, education, financial services, smart cities and poverty reduction. Newer technologies including AI, robotics and blockchain also will potentially have major ramifications for society. With this increasing role of technology often as part of digital transformation programs, the role of the CIO has increasingly become strategic and governments are undertaking initiatives to strengthen institutional capacity for ICT executive leadership.

The talk reviews the latest innovations in mobiles, robotics, AI, drones and blockchain and other new technologies in the context of the evolution of the role of CIOs and development of CIO institutions. What are current and potential applications, related challenges, possible future development paths, policy considerations and potential societal ramifications? How are the roles of CIO and related CIO institutions developing and adapting to the increasing possibility with greater risk and challenge of technology innovation and adoption? And how are engineering and university education changing to adapt for current and future students as well as to facilitate life long learning for graduates.

Speaker // Dr. J.P. Auffret Co-founder and Vice President International Academy of CIO

J.P. Auffret is co-founder and vice president of the International Academy of CIO. In addition, he is associate director, Center for Assurance Research and Engineering in the Volgenau School of Engineering and director, research partnerships in the School of Business at George Mason University. Auffret’s work and research span a range of applied technology fields including CIO and technology leadership, ICT governance, and cybersecurity leadership and with organizations including APEC, NSF and IBM. In addition, he has worked with World Bank and ITU on mobile and ICT for Development. His experience includes executive positions with MCI and its joint venture with British Telecom, Concert and academic positions with George Mason, Duke University’s Center for International Development and as physicist-in-residence at American University. Auffret earned a B.S. from Duke University where he was an A.B. Duke Scholar, M.B.A. from the University of Virginia and Ph.D. in Physics from American University.

For the webinar, please go here: https://youtu.be/ARudSRBzS0Y

Call for Papers Open Now for 15th Annual IAC Conference April 2021, at GMU in Arlington, VA, U.S.

Technology Leadership and Policy in the Age of AI, Blockchain, Robotics and 5G

The 15th International Academy of CIO Annual Conference is being held April 2021 in Arlington, VA U.S.A. and is being held at a time of great technology related opportunity and risk. With AI, Blockchain and 5G, there is opportunity in new product and services and also new industries that bridge time and space and enable greater access and speed in fields as diverse as government, healthcare, transportation and manufacturing.

And there are risks including in the fields of cybersecurity and privacy and also digital divide.

As with previous International Academy of CIO annual conferences, the 15th Annual Conference will address the potential and challenge of new technologies and applications to major world challenges such ICT and natural disasters and major world trends including ageing society and urbanization.

For the 15th Annual Conference, we are inviting research and practitioner papers and innovations related to the conference theme of “Technology Leadership and Policy in the Age of AI, Blockchain and 5G” and encompassing:

• Challenges of ICT innovation, governance and capacity building
• Strengthening leadership and institutions
• Application of new technologies including blockchain and AI
• Associated policy and policy development
• Risks including security, privacy and digital divide.

About the International Academy of CIO (IAC): The IAC or International Academy of CIO was founded in 2006 in Japan by co-founders including Japan, USA, Indonesia, Philippines, Switzerland, and Thailand. The IAC members, partnerships, and alliances now span all regions with economies such as China, Cambodia, Netherlands, India, Korea, Laos, Hong Kong, Macao, Peru, Singapore, South Africa, Nigeria, Taiwan, United Kingdom, Vietnam, Italy, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. The IAC has active participation from more than 50 countries and partners with NGOs and multilateral organizations including APEC, OECD and ITU.

The IAC promotes and facilitates CIO and IT Executive leadership education and education standards; government CIO and IT governance policies and institution building related to CIOs and CIO Councils; and application and innovation of ICT such as mobile, IoT and blockchain in areas including ICT and ageing society, smart cities, and ICT and natural disasters.

The IAC publishes the annual Waseda University – IAC Digital Government Rankings now in its 14th year and the Journal of CIO and Digital Innovation. The IAC also partners with IOS Press on a Global E-Governance book series. In education, the IAC accredits CIO master’s degree programs and provides CIO certificates to graduates as well as directly partnering on training through the Asia CIO University Network on topics including CIO and data science. The IAC hosts an annual conference and partners on conferences and workshops with governments and NGOs such as APECTEL, OECD and U.N. For more information, please go to: www.iacio.org.

About the International Academy of CIO Annual Conference: The IAC Annual Conference brings together government, private sector and academia participants to discuss and exchange ideas and best practices on ICT leadership and governance in light of rapidly changing technology. The conferences are research to practice oriented in that the talks and presentations include both strategy and practice talks and presentations by government leaders, private sector executives and NGO leaders as well as research related talks by academics.
In addition, the conferences focus on major world challenges and opportunities where ICT has the potential to contribute including the two topics of ageing society and natural disasters. The conferences are well attended by speakers and participants from around the world and are highlighted by active host government support and engagement.

Paper Topics and Important Dates:
Papers are invited that contribute to the conference sessions of:
• CIO and Digital Transformation of Economy
• Innovations in Digital Government
• Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and the Digital Future
• Cybersecurity
• Blockchain for Government
• E-Participation.

Submitted papers may refer to four dimensions of innovation, analyzed by clear data driven methods:
• Social and economic context innovations and issues: ageing society, urban transformation, healthcare system challenges, natural disasters, government’s role evolution, industry transformation, policy agendas, emerging business models, etc;
• Citizens’, patients’ and customers’ changing value drivers: empowerment, co-creation, online behavior and expectations, etc;
• Technology development and Management: challenges and ramifications of rapidly developing technologies such as robotics, autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence and major challenges such as capacity building, cyber-security, big data.
• CIO new skills and roles: Government CIO, Business CIO, CIO core competences, innovative management.

Application Timelines:
Please submit to: Luca Buccoliero at: [email protected], Elena Bellio at: [email protected] and J.P. Auffret at: [email protected].

For more IAC Call for Papers Informatino, please go to: https://iacio.org/call-for-paper-open-now-for-14th-iac-annual-conference-sept-19-taipei/.

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Scaling Local Government Cybersecurity Article Written by Marissa Da Silva on September 26th, 2019

Scaling Local Government Cybersecurity – Written by Marissa Da Silva on September 26th, 2019

With the increasing reliance upon information technology, cybersecurity is strategic imperative for communities across the United States. Unfortunately, many cities don’t have sufficient budgets or expertise when it comes to addressing the cybersecurity challenge. Jean-Pierre (J.P) Auffret, director, research partnerships, School of Business has partnered with Angelos Stavrou, Professor, Computer Science and Director, Center for Assurance Research and Engineering in the Volgenau School and Virginia and West Virginia state and local governments to collaborate on cybersecurity and foster regional local government cybersecurity partnerships and initiatives.

The background for the National Science Foundation project is that approximately 60% of the U.S. counties have less than 50,000 residents but “nearly all counties play a critical role in the transportation and infrastructure.” Counties own 46% of the U.S. road miles, 38% of the bridges and in addition are involved in the operation of 34% of public airports, 1,943 health departments, 3,041 police and sheriff’s departments, and utility services such as water and electricity. (National Association of Counties). Many cities and counties are increasingly adopting connected technology not just for administration but also for these critical infrastructure electric, water and transportation systems.

Building upon experiences in public health and public safety, cross-jurisdictional sharing of services is a growing strategy used at local levels to address technology related challenges such as tight budgets and limited expertise. The scalable nature of technology operations makes cybersecurity a good candidate for local government collaborations.
The project’s objective is to enhance U.S. local government cybersecurity by fostering and developing institutional capacity, policies and legislation to further local government cybersecurity partnering and governance; and to facilitate cybersecurity partnering among local governments.

The project kicked off with statewide workshops in Virginia and West Virginia with participants including state and local government administrators, IT and cybersecurity leaders. Virginia Secretary of Homeland Security and Public Safety Brian Moran gave an opening talk at the Virginia workshop and West Virginia Chief Technology Officer Josh Spence and Chief Information Security Officer Danielle Cox partnered on the West Virginia workshop. The statewide workshops identified potential areas for local government cybersecurity partnering including on cybersecurity governance, joint staffing, technology procurement and communications. In addition, the workshops, identified institutional barriers to partnering.

“Local governments are increasingly providing digital citizen services and own and operate critical infrastructure, including water and electricity,” says Auffret. “Cybersecurity partnerships amongst local governments can provide the means to scale and share capability and capacity and better address the cybersecurity threat”.

Project initiatives have also included hosting Virginia regional workshops in Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula; Loudoun County, Frederick County, Purcellville and Leesburg; and Roanoke County regions. Project partners in addition to NSF, the Commonwealth of Virginia and West Virginia governments, include the Department of Homeland Security; Virginia local governments of Arlington County, Essex County, Roanoke County, Loudoun County, Caroline County, Frederick County, Town of Purcellville and Town of Leesburg; and Palo Alto Networks.

Examples of local government cybersecurity collaborations resulting from the project include: adapting Arlington County cybersecurity policies for use by other local governments; developing a Cybersecurity Awareness Messages from the CISO pamphlet; contributing to development of a Commonwealth of Virginia local government cybersecurity points of contact list for the Virginia Fusion Center and developing a Readiness Assessment, Roadmap and Toolkit for local government cybersecurity partnering.

The project is going to further expand to Ohio and Pennsylvania in fall 2019.

http://business.gmu.edu/news/1778-scaling-local-government-cybersecurity/

14th Annual IAC Conference, “Driving Digital Government Transformation by Innovative Technologies,” to be Held in Taiwan on September 25 -27, 2019, hosted by Taiwan National Development Council, Taiwan E-Governance Research Center and the International Academy of CIO

The International Academy of CIO (IAC) announces the topic of “Driving Digital Government Transformation by Innovative Technologies,” for the 14th Annual IAC Conference to be held on September 25 -27, 2019 in Taipei, Taiwan, hosted by Taiwan National Development Council and Taiwan E-Governance Research Center.

The conference’s speakers will include Dr. Mei-ling Chen, Minister, National Development Council, Taiwan; Dr. Liang-Gee Chen, Minister, Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan; Dr. Yu-hsieh Sung, Deputy Secretary-General, Executive Yuan, Taiwan; and Professor Toshio Obi, Director, APEC eGovernment Research Center, Waseda University and others from Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas.

Organizers of the conference believe the IAC Conference is being held at a time of great technology related opportunity and risk. Attending the conference will provide many opportunities in new product and services that enable greater access and speed in fields as diverse as government, healthcare, transportation and manufacturing and as part of broad visions such as Japan’s Society 5.0. And, there are risks including in the fields of cybersecurity and privacy and also digital divide.

As with previous International Academy of CIO (IAC) conferences, the Conference will address the potential and challenge of new technologies and applications to major world challenges such as ICT and natural disasters and major world trends including ageing society and urbanization. The IAC Conference continues to bring together government, private sector and academia participants to discuss and exchange ideas and best practices on ICT leadership and governance in light of rapidly changing technology.

For the conference Agenda and to Register, please go to: https://iac2019.ndc.gov.tw.

About the International Academy of CIO (IAC):
The IAC or International Academy of CIO was founded in 2006 in Japan by co-founders including Japan, USA, Indonesia, Philippines, Switzerland and Thailand. The IAC members, partnerships, and alliances now span all regions with economies such as China, Cambodia, Netherlands, India, Korea, Laos, Hong Kong, Macao, Peru, Singapore, South Africa, Nigeria, Taiwan, United Kingdom, Vietnam, Italy, Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The IAC has active participation from more than 50 countries and partners with NGOs and multilateral organizations including APEC, OECD and ITU.

For more information, please contact current IAC President, J.P. Auffret at [email protected].

Chih Ho Chou, Section Chief, The Department of Cyber Security, Executive Yuan, Government of Taiwan Visits Mason; Researches Similarities and Differences in Approach to Cyber Security Legislation and Policy Between Taiwan and the U.S. with JP Auffret

On January 1, 2019, Taiwan’s executive branch of government began implementing the Cyber Security Management Act which was enacted by the President on June 6, 2018 and passed by the Legislative Yuan in May 2018. Chih Ho Chou’s time at Mason will contribute to his work on this task force implementing the Act. He will also study, review, compare, and contrast U.S. and Taiwan strategies and approaches to cybersecurity governance related the Act which he must implement. In addition, he will research the cybersecurity strategy and laws in the U.S., and try to compare with Taiwan.

We sat down with Chih Ho Chou and asked him some questions:

Q: What will you be working on and doing while you are at Mason?

A: To effectively reduce and control government agencies’ cyber security risks, the Taiwan government has strengthened cybersecurity governance. We started instructing government agencies on how to introduce the cybersecurity governance maturity assessment model in 2014 in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the cybersecurity governance in the organizations. As of the end of 2016, ten government agencies have held trial runs of the model. In the future, we will not only actively facilitate all government agencies to adopt the cybersecurity governance maturity model and regularly conduct self-evaluation, but we also aim to establish evaluation mechanisms by third parties for government agencies. Through a fair judgement of third parties, all agencies will be guided to enhance their cybersecurity governance to move toward established, predictable, and even innovating organizations.

In addition, the “Cyber Security Management Act” was promulgated on June 6, 2018, with six regulations (Enforcement Rules of Cyber Security Management Act, Regulations for Classification of Cyber Security Responsibility Levels, Regulations for Reporting and Responding Cyber Security Incidents, Regulations for Inspecting Implementation Status of Non-official Agencies’ Cyber Security Maintenance Programs, Regulations for Sharing Cyber Security Information, Award and Punishment Regulations on Cyber Security Affairs for the Public Servants of the Public Official Agencies). The Act was officially implemented on January 1 2019. Subsequently, we need to focus on how it works in practice in Taiwan.

Q: How will your time here at Mason help with your work?

A: As the Internet becomes both faster and more dangerous, it is important to create pre-protect and post-protect mechanisms for the whole system. The goal that I’d like to achieve is to always remain on the cutting edge of cybersecurity defense, both technically and policy-wise. Mason offers me a very good research environment. There are plenty of research resources. Professor J.P. also provides me with some valuable advice on my research.

Q: Please share with me a quote about what this time at Mason has meant to you?

A: My motto of learning is simple, to “practice what you preach.” I always seek to be the first in line to face problems and to think of strategies to overcome the overwhelming pressure before my team. In academia, if I did not guide my students on how to conduct their research, I would find them being like ants scurrying around the base of the tree in bewilderment. In my role in government, I take great risk and responsibility to solve every problem to make people feel safe, draw them into a circle of trust. I want to continually empower myself to learn how to discover potential threats, face problems with courage and come up with better strategies and solutions for every single task.
As Ghandi said, we need to “Be the change that we wish to see in the world.”

Q: What were you working on in your country?

A: Since Aug. 2016, I have been the Section Chief in the Department of Cyber Security, Executive Yuan, Government of Taiwan. During the past five years, my main job is to develop and promote the cybersecurity related plans and strategies, including Cybersecurity Management Act, cyber offensive and defensive exercise (CODE), cybersecurity risk management, cyber security audit program, cyber security incidents report and defense mechanism, critical information infrastructure protection (CIIP), cyber security united defense mechanism (security operation center, computer emergency response team, information sharing and analysis center), government configuration baseline (GCB) and so on.
Q: What will you bring back to your home country from this time in the US at Mason?

A: As the person of section chief who leads the team in the Department of Cyber Security, Executive Yuan, Taiwan, I believe the accomplishment of my learning can steer to fruitful results. The foreseeable projects that I am working on are Promotional Proposal for National Cyber Security Program of Taiwan 2021-2023, The Cyber Security Flagship Project – Critical Information Infrastructure Protection, Cyber Security Management Act Review, and Cyber Security Policy White Paper. The knowledge and qualities I will gain in the US at Mason will be indispensable in helping me to take a lead and implement on my work.

Humphrey Fellow from Central African Republic Visiting Mason to Explore ICT for Development and Cybersecurity Policy

Humphrey Fellow, Serge Adouaka-Ngoimale is visiting George Mason University for six weeks and working with Professor J.P. Auffret, director, Research Partnerships in the School of Business and associate director of the Center for Assurance Research and Engineering in the Volgenau School of Engineering at Mason on the topics of ICT for Development and Cybersecurity Policy and a topic of:

What are possible paths to foster ICT for Development in conjunction with cybersecurity policy and governance in the Central African Republic and what are best practices and initiatives of other countries in the region?

Serge is on campus as part of the Humphrey Fellowship Program which is affiliated with the Fulbright Program through the U.S. Department of State. The Humphrey Fellowship provides ten months of study and professional affiliations for mid-career scholars and professionals from developing countries. Fellows are selected based on “potential for leadership and dedication to public service” and alumni have made contributions in their home countries ranging from serving as government Ministers to starting schools and leading trans-formative policy initiatives.

The 2018-2019 Humphrey Fellowship Program consists of 150 fellows from 97 countries.

In the Central African Republic, Serge was most recently Country Security Manager at Ecobank, CAR where he managed the business continuity plan. Previously, he held the positions of Head of Card Operations, Head of IT Division and the Country Head of Infrastructure IT.

The research is timely as the Central African Republic government signed the Accord for Peace and Reconciliation with 14 armed groups in February bringing to an end the six year armed conflict in Central African Republic’s eastern region of Haute-Kotto.

“Education and networking are the keys that shape the vision and its realization. We should build an active citizen that contributes efficiently to her/his community,” says Serge Adouaka-Ngoimale, Humphrey Fellow 2018-2019.

Serge continues about his Humphrey Fellowship prior to his visit to Mason, “I have been at the University of Montana for four months studying English and then moved to Syracuse, New York for ten months studying Technology Policy and Management at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. During this time, I learned so many things about Leadership, Civic Engagement, Entrepreneurship, Crisis, and Disaster Management and experienced culture shock sometimes.”

“Special thanks to Professor JP Auffret and faculty members for hosting me and guiding my research. Thank you for this opportunity to talk about my great experience here during the Humphrey year. And many thanks to all of you that make this happen. I will bring back so many things from my time here, but globally, I’ll bring back leadership in technology policy and an entrepreneurship mindset,” says Serge Adouaka-Ngoimale.

Serge is the seventh Humphrey Scholar Fellow to visit Auffret. Previous Humphrey Scholars that Auffret has hosted were from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Nigeria, Russia, and Namibia.

The New Cyberattack Surface: Artificial Intelligence

The following article was submitted by Malek Ben Salem, PhD, Cybersecurity Senior Manager, Accenture Labs about Adversarial AI. Accenture generously supports our Cybersecurity Innovation Forum series, an evening, and speaker event with cybersecurity experts and tech innovators four times a year, sponsored by Volgenau’s CARE center and the School of Business at George Mason University.

The New Cyberattack Surface: Artificial Intelligence
Author: Malek Ben Salem, PhD, Cybersecurity Senior Manager, Accenture Labs

Know your threat

Adversarial AI causes machine learning models to misinterpret inputs into the system and behave in a way that’s favorable to the attacker.

To produce the unexpected behavior, attackers create “adversarial examples” that often resemble normal inputs, but instead are meticulously optimized to break the model’s performance.

Attackers typically create these adversarial examples by developing models that repeatedly make minute changes to the model inputs.

Eventually these changes stack up, causing the model to become unstable and make inaccurate predictions on what appear to be normal inputs.

What makes adversarial AI such a potent threat? In large part, it’s because if an adversary can determine a particular behavior in a model that’s unknown to developers, they can exploit that behavior. There’s also the risk of “poisoning attacks,” where the machine learning model itself is manipulated.

Secure your AI models – time to get started

While AI attack surfaces are only just emerging, business leaders’ security strategies should account for adversarial AI, with an emphasis on engineering resilient modelling structures and strengthening critical models against attempts to introduce adversarial examples. Your most immediate steps include:

Step 1 – Conduct an inventory to determine which business processes leverage AI, and where systems operate as black boxes.

Step 2 – Gather information on the exposure and criticality of each AI model discovered in Step 1 by asking several critical questions, including:
• Does it support business-critical operations?
• How opaque/complex is the decision-making for this process?

Step 3 – Prioritize plans for highly critical and highly exposed models, using information you acquired in step 2, and create a plan for strengthening models that support critical processes and are at high risk of attack.

Read the full Accenture Labs report for more about protecting your AI attack surface.

Create robust, secure AI

Business leaders need to combine multiple approaches to ensure robust, secure AI. Our research reveals four essential steps:

Rate limitation
By rate-limiting how individuals can submit a set of inputs to a system, effort is increased. That’s a deterrent to adversarial attackers.

Input validation
With a focus on what’s being put into your AI models, and by making modifications, it’s possible to “break” an adversary’s ability to fool a model.

Robust model structuring
The structuring of machine learning models can provide you with some natural resistance to adversarial examples.

Adversarial training
If enough adversarial examples are inserted into data during the training phase, a machine learning algorithm will learn how to interpret them.

Call for Papers-14th IAC Annual Conference in Taipei, Taiwan. Topic: Driving Digital Government Transformation by Innovative Tech – Sept. 25-27, 2019. Abstracts due June 15.

The 14th International Academy of CIO Annual Conference on September 25th to 27th, 2019 in Taipei, Taiwan is being held at a time of great technology related opportunity and risk. There is opportunity in new product and services that bridge time and space and enable greater access and speed in fields as diverse as government, healthcare, transportation and manufacturing and as part of broad visions such as Japan’s Society 5.0. And there are risks including in the fields of cybersecurity and privacy and also digital divide.

As with previous International Academy of CIO annual conferences, the 14th Annual Conference will address the potential and challenge of new technologies and applications to major world challenges such ICT and natural disasters and major world trends including ageing society and urbanization.

For the 14th Annual Conference, we are inviting research and practitioner papers and innovations related to the conference theme of “Driving Digital Government Transformation by Innovative Technologies” and encompassing:

– Challenges of ICT innovation, governance and capacity building
– Strengthening leadership and institutions
– Application of new technologies including blockchain and AI
– Associated policy and policy development
– Risks including security, privacy and digital divide.

About the International Academy of CIO (IAC)

The IAC or International Academy of CIO was founded in 2006 in Japan by co-founders including Japan, USA, Indonesia, Philippines, Switzerland and Thailand. The IAC members, partnerships and alliances now span all regions with economies such as China, Cambodia, Netherlands, India, Korea, Laos, Hong Kong, Macao, Peru, Singapore, South Africa, Nigeria, Taiwan, United Kingdom, Vietnam, Italy, Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The IAC has active participation from over 50 countries and partners with NGOs and multilateral organizations including APEC, OECD and ITU.

About the International Academy of CIO Annual Conference:

The IAC Annual Conference brings together government, private sector and academia participants to discuss and exchange ideas and best practices on ICT leadership and governance in light of rapidly changing technology. The conferences are research to practice oriented in that the talks and presentations include both strategy and practice talks and presentations by government leaders, private sector executives and NGO leaders as well as research related talks by academics. In addition, the conferences focus on major world challenges and opportunities where ICT has the potential to contribute including the two topics of ageing society and natural disasters. The conferences are well attended by speakers and participants from around the world and are highlighted by active host government support and engagement.

The Taipei conference in September 2019 is the 14th IAC Annual Conference – with previous conferences being held in Asia, Europe and North America and in ten countries.

2018 – Astana, Kazakhstan
2017 – Moscow, Russia
2016 – Milan, Italy
2015 – Tokyo, Japan
2014 – Singapore
2013 – Beijing, China
2012 – Moscow, Russia
2011 – Manila, Philippines
2010 – Bandung, Indonesia

2009 – Bangkok, Thailand
2008 – Tokyo, Japan
2007 – Fairfax, Virginia
2006 – Tokyo, Japan

Paper Topics and Important Dates”

Papers are invited that contribute to the conference sessions of:

– CIO and Digital Transformation of Economy
– Innovations in Digital Government
– Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and the Digital Future
– Cybersecurity

– Blockchain for Government
– E-Participation.

Submitted papers may refer to four dimensions of innovation, analyzed by clear data driven methods:

– Social and economic context innovations and issues: ageing society, urban transformation, healthcare system challenges, natural disasters, government’s role evolution, industry transformation, policy agendas, emerging business models, etc;

– Citizens’, patients’ and customers’ changing value drivers: empowerment, co-creation, online behavior and expectations, etc;
– Technology development and Management: challenges and ramifications of rapidly developing technologies such as robotics, autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence and major challenges such as capacity building, cyber-security, big data.
– CIO new skills and roles: Government CIO, Business CIO, CIO core competences, innovative management.

Application Timelines:

– Abstracts due by June 15th

Please submit to: Luca Buccoliero at [email protected], Elena Bellio at [email protected] and J.P. Auffret at [email protected].

– Notifications of Acceptance by July 1st

– Full papers due by September 1st.

All submissions should be in English.

Submission Categories:

The submission categories are research papers, practitioner experience papers and posters:

– Academic research papers or research in progress – limited to ten pages

– Practitioner experience papers – limited to six pages

– Posters – A1 size poster.

Publication and Awards

Selected papers will be published in the fall 2019 edition of the IAC Journal of CIO and Digital Innovation.

In addition, there will be Best Paper Awards for each of the research, practitioner and poster submission categories.

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The 14th IAC Annual Conference will be hosted by Taiwan National Development Council and Taiwan eGovernance Research Center.

For more information about the 14th IAC Annual Conference and the Call for Papers, please go to www.iacio.org

Or contact J.P. Auffret at [email protected] or Luca Buccoliero at [email protected] .

2018 Waseda – IAC Digital Government Rankings Released

Countries in all regions of the world are continuing to make strides in efforts to enhance Digital Government and foster digital innovation according to a new report launched today by The Institute of D-Government at Waseda University, Tokyo in cooperation with the International Academy of CIO (IAC).

The Institute of Digital Government, Waseda University headed by Dr. Toshio Obi, published the results today of the 2018 Waseda-IAC International Digital Government Ranking Survey. This is the 14th annual survey with the first published in 2005.

The 2018 ranking survey marks Denmark jumping to first place, followed by Singapore in 2nd, the United Kingdom in 3rd, Estonia in 4th, the USA in 5th, South Korea in 6th, Japan in 7th, Sweden in 8th, Taiwan in 9th, and Australia ranked 10th.

“Most governments have increased their excellent achievements in citizen-centric approach and demand-pull online services,” says Dr. Toshio Obi, professor at Waseda University’s Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies and director of the APEC Institute of e-Government at Waseda University. “This report also provides an early warning signal against increasing digital gap and innovation among nations,” he added.

Dr. J.P. Auffret, President of the International Academy of CIO and professor at George Mason University notes that ”many countries have increased their focus on Digital Government and the application of technology to foster economic growth and their efforts are reflected in the Rankings. For example Kazakhstan has moved from 24th in 2017 to 18th in 2018, UAE from 40th to 34th, Hong Kong from 24th to 18th, Finland from 18th to 13th, Norway from 16th to 11th, Switzerland from 23rd to 12th and Malaysia from 36th to 25th.”

The 2018 rankings also point to significant trends in the usage of ICT in government activities. The report shows that there are some new trends which will potentially have major impacts in the coming years. These include:
(1) Re-definition of e-government to Digital Government
(2) Usage of AI and IoT for Digital Government
(3) Expanding the Scale of Smart City and e-local government
(4) Blockchain Technology for Digital Government
(5) Digital Government for AntiCorruption.

In addition to the above trends, the report noted six challenges for Digital Government to contribute to addressing. They are digital innovation with cloud computing, IoT and AI; ageing society; globalization of open innovation; digital divide for global and local communities; urbanization with mega smart cites; and cooperation between central and local governments.

This survey is conducted by the distinguished experts from Waseda University and ten world-class universities under the umbrella of the International Academy of CIO. These institutions are Waseda University (Japan), Peking University (China), George Mason University, (USA), Thammasat University (Thailand), Bandung Institute of Technology (Indonesia), National University of Singapore (Singapore), RANEPA (Russia),University of Turku (Finland), Bocconi University (Italy), Taiwan e-Governance Research Center (Taiwan) and De La Salle University (Philippines).

Ten main indicators and 35 sub-indicators were utilized in developing the Digital Government Rankings in 2018. The survey continues as in 2017 by considering 65 countries (economies). The indicators include: Network Preparedness, Management Optimization, Online Services, National Portal, Government CIO, D-Government Promotion, E-Participation / Digital Inclusion, Open Government, Cybersecurity and Use of Emerging ICT. As an example, for the Indicator of “Use of Emerging ICT,” the leading five countries / economies are: Singapore, Denmark, UK, USA and South Korea.

For the details, a full ranking report on 2018 Rankings with all 65 Country Reports can be found at: http://e-gov.waseda.ac.jp/pdf/The_2018_Waseda-IAC_Digital_Government_Rankings_Report.pdf and also on the IAC homepage at: http://iacio.org.

About the International Academy of CIO (IAC): Founded in 2005, the International Academy of CIO (IAC) is an international NGO headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The IAC fosters the exchange and adoption of best practices on CIO and IT executive leadership, as well as with IT organizations and government IT institutions. The IAC promotes and facilitates CIO and IT executive leadership education; government CIO and IT governance legislation and institution building; and global standards for CIO education. The IAC has 15 country chapters; active participation from governments, private sector and universities in more than 50 countries; and partnerships with World Bank, APEC, OECD and U.N. University. For more information: http://iacio.org.

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