Cyber defence will be a part of NATO’s adaptation process in a new strategic environment, said Assistant Secretary General Ambassador Sorin Ducaru, addressing the conference on cyber conflict in Tallinn today.
„We are challenged with providing new answers to old questions,” highlighted Ambassador Ducaru speaking about protection of NATO Allies. NATO does not intend to militarise cyberspace or to have an ungoverned cyberspace, instead it is a core task for ensuring collective defence, he added.
„The mandate of NATO is cyber defence, not cyber security,” Ducaru emphasised. He highlighted that partnerships with academia and industry, as well as with the political community, are essential to getting answers to questions concerning the new strategic environment.
The Ambassador illustrated his talk on the current strategic situation with a story about Einstein. After Einstein communicated the questions at an exam, one of his brightest students immediately jumped up and said that Einstein must have made a mistake – the questions were the same as the year before. „Indeed, but I changed the answers,“ replied Einstein.
The topic of CyCon 2015, “Architectures in Cyberspace,” asks what cyberspace is and will be in the coming years as well as how it relates to cyber security. Issues debated will vary from technical to legal, strategy and policy. The pre-conference workshop day, 26 May, features a variety of policy discussions and technical trainings. The conference is organized by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence.
The speakers at the 7th Conference on Cyber Conflict, included CyCon 2015 Admiral Michael S. Rogers of the US Cyber Command and National Security Agency and Assistant Secretary General of NATO Ambassador Sorin Ducaru as well as numerous academics, industry leaders and cyber experts. The number of participants at this year’s CyCon exceeds 500.
The Tallinn-based NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence is a NATO-accredited knowledge hub, think tank and training facility, focused on interdisciplinary applied research and development as well as consultations, education and exercises in the field of cyber security. The Centre’s mission is to enhance capability, cooperation and information-sharing between NATO, Allies and partners in cyber defence.
More information is available on the conference website www.cycon.org and by following #CyCon on Twitter.