Unprecedented new Political and Cyber Security Threats are happening at a scale that has never been witnessed before. These threats are large and malicious enough to take down nuclear programs, render oil refineries inoperable, and take billion-dollar websites offline (not to mention smaller ones). Recent events confirm that NO ONE IS IMMUNE.

Despite the obvious warning signs, Internet business stakeholders the world over continue to act as if nothing has changed, and seem unaware that global paradigms have undergone a seismic shift almost overnight. As such, many global industries and their players continue to strategize, implement and manage their day-to-day operations relying on assumptions that don’t reflect these new realties. This undermines their competitiveness and exposes them, their partners, customers, and shareholders in ways never seen before. In many cases, shareholders who expect their executive management teams to be diligent are shocked when they find after the fact that they were instead asleep at the wheel.

This overly uninformed groupthink has exponentially escalated the exposure all stakeholders face to Cyber Security threats. As the threats climb to new heights, they begin to impact competiveness and the ability to tap new opportunities. In short, practically no one is facing reality, and so NO ONE IS PREPARED.

Facing the Facts

The Internet and the Global and Political Landscape have undergone global seismic changes in the last 12-18 months, This will continue unabated, and very likely to even accelerate. For those who think we are talking only about the new gTLDs, changes to the DNS, and the additions of 100s of new suffixes: wake up and smell the coffee. It’s far bigger than that. Just look at what ISIS has done to the map and landscape of the Middle East and what it forced the world to witness and adapt to, look at the Sony hack and who its key players were, the Snowden revelations and the cancer scare it dealt to Trust. The threats to the Internet and its landscape are coming from multiple directions: military, political, social, and more. Ask yourself: how can stakeholders mitigate these new threats? Alone, they cannot. With each other’s help, they have a chance and we can help them. Denying these and other relevant new facts is equivalent to simple ignorance, however, not doing something about them is negligence, and a dereliction of responsibilities and duties.

A New MiLE is Born

Born is the New MiLE™—a New Multilingual internet & Landscape Ecosystem; a Multilingual Internet we have championed and advocated for almost two decades but which today comes full of grave new global Poli-Cyber™ threats, but also amazing new global opportunities, especially in emerging markets and economies.

Ripple effects that impact both the online and offline worlds are constantly being witnessed and reported on the world over. Horrendous crimes, such as child pornography and kidnapping, drug trafficking, and extortion are now evolving and escalating at a rate in which most law enforcement agencies will struggle even more than ever before to keep pace with, even with help from local, federal, and international bodies.

The overwhelming danger we all now face cannot be denied, nor can we collectively or individually afford to overlook it if we wish to survive it, or call ourselves civilized, let alone turn it into new opportunities.

Adapt or Perish

If you don’t inform yourself how these new Poli-Cyber™ threats will impact you and other stakeholders around the world, learn how vulnerable you and your industry are, as well as how they are constantly evolving, how sure are you that you can survive?

If you don’t acquire the knowledge, the tools, and set the standards you need to meet in order to ensure your survival against these seismic threats, the outcome is certain. You will be impacted. The only details yet to be determined are:

1. How Soon? (You may have already been impacted and not know it)
2. By How Much?
3. Will You, or Can You Survive?
4. If You Can, At What Cost?

Call to Action

Join The MLi Group Global Summit Series and our upcoming Johannesburg / Southern Africa Summit “Prepare for the New MiLE™” Hosted By Microsoft at Microsoft South Africa Campus—3012 William Nicol Drive Bryanston Johannesburg, South Africa, September 2-3 2015.

Crucial topics including but not limited to Cyber Security, Child Protection Online, New Corporate & Social Roles and Responsibilities in the new MiLE will be addressed, debated, and weighed in on by local, regional, and global experts from all sectors of society.

Observe local innovators pitching their new solutions and ideas to MLi Group partner investors and accelerators at special summit session “Innovator Meet Accelerator™ ” on day two of the Summit. This unique initiative by the MLi Group and its Global Summit Series is set to empower entrepreneurs and innovators, to create new opportunities, and to seed fund local innovations to find and create solutions to local problems and challenges in their own communities and the new MiLE.

A Final Thought and a Challenge.

If we in Names and Numbers industry or the technology sector, especially those of us who are front line services providers like registrars, registries, social networks, etc or the regulator of these registries and registrars who consider ourselves leaders don’t voluntarily step up to the plate and weigh in, if we don’t state our positions and voluntarily show what we are willing to do to be part of the new solutions to many of these critical topics especially “Child Protection Online in the new MiLE”, then how can we call ourselves leaders?

Our focus should not be to make only the domain name and numbers space more prosperous and, at times safer, but to make the new MiLE safer and empowering for generations to come. This, I believe is part of serving the global public interest in the new MiLE, and which I believe is a responsibility on us all - some more than others - depending on our mandate, our existing influence, roles and responsibilities. If we chose not to act, or fail to act now and before it is too late, then we most definitely cannot call ourselves leaders, nor innovators, nor responsible no matter how we try to spin it.

Are you a Leader or a Follower?

For those who wish to make a difference, the MLi Group Global Summit series and our upcoming Southern Africa Summit, “Prepare for the New MiLE” hosted by Microsoft in Johannesburg on September 2nd and 3rd, 2015 is where all these and many other topics will be tackled, and debated for making consensus driven conclusions about preparing to meet the threats we face.
The links below are there for those who want to step up, join us, engage and weigh in. To others we simply say: Good luck.

Click here to Register. Click here to see the online Draft Program. Click here for MLi Group Summit Series website.