CyCon 2016 to Focus on Cyber Power

The 8th International Conference on Cyber Conflict (CyCon 2016), to be held in Tallinn on 31 May-3 June next year, will focus on cyber power. The 7th Conference on Cyber Conflict, CyCon 2015, ended today.

Colonel Artur Suzik, Director of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence that organises the conference, explained that CyCon 2016 will discuss how the traditional concept of power applies to cyberspace. “In particular, CyCon 2016 will ask how hard and soft power are being used to achieve strategic and political goals through technical, legal and economic means, how we assess and enforce power, and how balance of power is maintained.”

In today’s increasingly complex cyberspace we see a variety of actors struggling to gain or maintain their position. The ubiquitous use of information and communication technologies has had a profound influence on how these actors pursue their goals and interests. This provokes numerous questions that CyCon 2016 aims to discuss and answer. In particular, though not exclusively, CyCon 2016 concentrates on the technical, legal, political, military and economic perspectives.

The speakers at the 7th Conference on Cyber Conflict, CyCon 2015, included 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 conference brought together more than 500 participants. The topic “Architectures in Cyberspace” asked what cyberspace is and will be in the coming years as well as how cyber security will develop.

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. Call for papers can be found at https://ccdcoe.org/cycon/call-papers.html . Pictures found at  http://pildid.mil.ee/K-berkonverents-CyCon-27-05-15 can be freely used (photo credit : Siim Teder, Estonian Defence Forces).