The NATO Counter Intelligence Centre of Excellence was the main institutional partner for the 2019 CYBERSEC conference held in Katowice, Poland.
During two days (29-30.10.2019) and thirty discussion panels, over 150 experts from around the world discussed vital topics for the security of the digital world. Launched in 2015, CYBERSEC is a successful and well-established annual public policy conference dedicated to strategic security aspects of the global technology environment. CYBERSEC is the largest cybersecurity event in Central and Eastern Europe. Over 1,700 participants took part in this 5th edition of the conference and accompanying activities.
The main organizer of the conference is the Kościuszko Institute, an independent, non-governmental think tank founded in 2000 as a non-profit organization. Its mission is to act in the interest of the socio-economic development and security of Poland as a proactive member of the European Union and NATO. During the CYBERSEC 2019 conference, the NATO Counter Intelligence Centre of Excellence championed one of the four overarching issue streams – the Defense Stream. The purpose of Defense Stream discussions was to develop recommendations related to construction of a cyber-defense system at the national and international organization levels. The discussions were conducted during four panels:
- Security among the Alliance, building capabilities together;
- Hedging against hybrid threats;
- Cybersecurity of drones in remote military operations;
- Revealing power of OSINT in the digital environment.
The discussions were attended by, among others: NATO Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges, Antonio Missiroli; Secretary of State, Polish Ministry of National Defence, Tomasz Zdzikot; Director General, Directorate for Defence Policy of Montenegro, Ivica Ivanović; Director, National Cyber Security Centre, Brigadier General Karol Molenda; Deputy Director, Cyber Defence Center of the Slovak Republic, Petra Hochmannova; and the former Director of the US National Security Agency and first USCYBERCOM commander, General Keith Alexander.
The conference concluded with a special panel focused on tapping the potential of NATO Centres of Excellence, with the participation of five directors of these institutions. In the discussion led by Steering Committee Chairman of NATO CI COE, Colonel Robert Bala, the following participants took part: Colonel Daniel W. Stone, Acting Director, NATO Centre of Excellence for Defence Against Terrorism; Colonel Martin Achimović, Director, NATO Counter Intelligence Centre of Excellence; Colonel Josef Schroefl, Deputy Director, European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats; Colonel Romualdas Petkevicius, Director, NATO Energy Security Center of Excellence; and Colonel Florin-Vasile Tomiuc, Director, NATO Human Intelligence Centre of Excellence.
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