The 8th International Conference on Cyber Conflict opens tomorrow in Tallinn, Estonia and continues through June 3. Focused on the theme of Cyber Power, CyCon 2016 asks how the traditional concept of power applies to cyberspace.
Selected Cycon 2016 keynotes will be broadcast live at https://ccdcoe.org/cycon/cycon-2016-video-feed.html.
The NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence organizes and hosts CyCon. Each year, over 500 decision-makers and experts from government, academia and industry from all over the world approach the conference’s key themes from legal, technological, and strategic perspectives, often in an interdisciplinary manner. Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves opens the conference with a keynote address and later leads a discussion on political change and the digital revolution. Mr. Martin Stropnicky, Minister of Defence of the Czech Republic and Adm. Manfred Nielson, Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Transformation will also deliver keynote addresses on international defence cooperation in cyber security.
June 1st continues with a panel discussion featuring cyber commanders from NATO allies. Vice Adm. Arnaud Coustilliere, French General Defence Staff, and Brig. Gen. Hans Folmer, Dutch Defence Cyber Command, will discuss the emerging recognition of cyber as a fifth operational domain. The panelists will examine military cyber capabilities along with dedicated structures and doctrines. The same afternoon examines questions as diverse as threats in aviation, norms governing cyberspace, criminalization of state-sponsored activities and developments in NATO at Warsaw summit and beyond. CyCon takes a multidisciplinary approach to these questions, including panelists from defence, information technology, legal and other backgrounds.
CyCon 2016 continues for the following two days, featuring numerous distinguished keynote speakers and panels. Professor Martin C. Libicki, RAND Corporation research scientist and author of the forthcoming book Cyberspace in War and Peace, will discuss information technology’s effect on domestic and national security. Professor Thomas Rid, King’s College London, will offer a preview of his book, Rise of the Machines. Mikko Hyppönen, Chief Research Officer for F-Secure, will deliver a lecture titled Behind Enemy Lines, on modern computer security.
Other notable participants include Jason Healey, senior research scholar at Columbia University’s School for International and Public Affairs; Professor Mike Schmitt, the editor of Tallinn Manual on the applicability of international law to cyber warfare; Michael Sulmeyer, the Belfer Center's Cyber Security Project director at the Harvard Kennedy School; Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Koen Gijsbers, first General Manager of the NATO Communications and Information Agency; Jaan Tallinn of the Future of Life Institute; and Maj. Gen. James Hockenhull, Director of the Cyber, Intelligence, and Information Integration, MoD, UK.