In 2018, the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE) will host the tenth anniversary Conference on Cyber Conflict, CyCon X. To celebrate the decennial milestone, members of the cyber security community were invited to shape the focus of the tenth CyCon with their own choice of the most topical cyber security issues, from technical, legal, policy, strategy or military perspectives. The debates and presentations at the event will stem both from original research papers submitted by the academic community and insights offered by other renowned experts in the field. As a result, CyCon X will focus on the topic of maximising effects in cyberspace.
Since the very beginning, cyberspace has provided unparalleled opportunities to achieve effects in novel ways. Today, cyberspace provides a technological platform and an environment for diverse actors, with both positive and negative motivations, to influence everyone and everything. Maximising effects in the cyber realm is important for military, governments, business, media and even private users; but how will this be achieved and what will the consequences be? How will AI, machine learning and big data help to maximise effects in cyberspace? How will international law develop in light of the serious effects of state-sponsored operations that may or may not be hard to attribute? The effects generated through cyberspace, including new instabilities and vulnerabilities, will require new policies, legal frameworks and technological solutions to maximise security.
Unique Community-building Event
Each year, around 600 decision-makers, opinion-leaders, law and technology experts from the governments, military, academia and industry of nearly 50 countries meet at CyCon to address current cyber security challenges in an interdisciplinary manner.
The CCDCOE conducted its first cyber security conferences in 2009, when two separate conferences were organised, focusing on legal and technological aspects and research on cyber conflict. Now, after nine iterations, the International Conference on Cyber Conflict is a unique annual conference hosting all the focus areas of cyber conflict in a single event. Over two and a half days, experts approach the conference’s key themes in keynote speeches, plenaries, focused sessions and breakout discussions. CyCon’s workshops allow more in-depth discussions on specific topics related to technology and malware development, education and training issues, legal aspects, etc., or provide practical hands-on training.
Prominent Speakers and Highest Academic Standards
The opening address of CyCon is made by the President of Estonia, most recently in 2017 by President Kersti Kaljulaid. Other prominent speakers over the years have included Admiral Michael S. Rogers, Commander of the US Cyber Command and Director of the American National Security Agency; Thomas Rid, recognised author and professor on cyber security; Dr Martin C. Libicki, RAND Corporation; Katie Moussouris, Luta Security; Professor Michael Schmitt, University of Exeter; Marina Kaljurand, Chair of the GCSC; Jeff Moss, the founder and CEO of the DEF CON hacker conference; Dmitri Alperovitch, CrowdStrike; Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post; Paul Vixie, Farsight Security; Mikko Hyppönen, F-Secure; cryptographer Bruce Schneier and many others.
In 2016 CyCon expanded to the USA, when the Army Cyber Institute of the United States Military Academy at West Point launched CyCon U.S. in collaboration with CCDCOE. CyCon U.S. complements and broadens the reach of CyCon by promoting multidisciplinary cyber initiatives and furthering research and cooperation on cyber threats and opportunities.
CyCon is organised by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence and adheres to the highest standards in academic research. Proceedings are released as an IEEE publication, contributing to the world’s foremost technical literature on electrical engineering, computer science and electronics. Further information, as well as the proceedings, videos, and presentations from previous years, may be found at www.cycon.org.