States, non-state actors and individuals have to work together to ensure a free Internet, said Admiral Michael S. Rogers, Commander of the US Cyber Command and Director of the American National Security Agency, addressing the conference on cyber conflict in Tallinn today. Admiral Rogers compared cyberspace to the high seas at CyCon 2015, organized by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence.
“I hope we do not find a world in which the internet becomes something that fractures and where the ability to move information freely is controlled,” Admiral Rogers said. He emphasized that as no one entity controls the cyberspace, cooperation partnerships are foundational for the future.
“The seas around the world are, much like the cyber domain, not governed by one single nation. We have created maritime norms and have to do the same in the cyber space to ensure a flow of information and ideas,” Admiral Rogers said. The Internet cannot be controlled by one single entity, he highlighted. Creating something equivalent to the maritime world that enables us to move ideas, goods and information freely around the globe, the Admiral said.
“The changes we have seen in the cyberspace are immense. We take for granted what started 40 years ago,” the Admiral concluded. “Now we have a structure that has exploded in terms of the number of users, creating challenges of capacity and safety.”
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 speakers at the 7th Conference on Cyber Conflict, include 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.