The GSR is a yearly meeting for regulators organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The 2012 edition of the event was organized in collaboration with and hosted by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) on October 1-4, 2012, in Colombo, Srilanka, under the Patronage of His Excellency Mr Mahinda Rajapakksa, President of Sri Lanka.

This year’s GSR was an opportunity for participants to share their views on net neutrality, spectrum policies, roaming, cloud computing, online safety with a focus on data protection and privacy, international and regional IP interconnection, public-private-partnerships to foster investment and deployment of broadband NGN networks and more.

The first two days of GSR were open to regulators, policy makers, ITU–D Sector Members, whereas the third day remained closed to regulators and policy makers.

Dr. Imad Hoballah, TRA acting chairman and CEO, moderated the panel titled: dark clouds: “Safety and Security on the Net” that tackled the below topics:

• Over view of online threats from a user’s perspective: data protection and privacy issues. Are these rights different in the cloud? How to ensure any‐time reliable access to cloud services?
• From a commercial point of view: importance of data security and reliability, defining applicable jurisdictions, managing risks, etc.
• Child online protection
• Balancing free flow of information/communications with security concerns
• What role for regulators?