IQPC´s Cyber Defence & Network Security (CDANS) Conference 2013 was held at the Russel Hotel in London from 29 to 30 January 2013. The conference attracted an international panel of speakers, clearly illustrating one of the key messages - the need of international cooperation and sharing of information. Belgium’s Minister of Defence, Pieter De Crem, then rightly took on this requirement in his speech "Key International Challenges for Cooperation and Coordination against Cyber Attacks".
Representatives of the European Defence Agency, as a facilitator of cooperation among European member states, had been invited to speak. In the morning and afternoon sessions of the second day, EU institutions were able to deliver a taste of how much interrelation and coordination has developed since Cyber Security has been put on a joint agenda.
European Framework Cooperation
Marco Malacarne, Head of Security Research and Industry at DG Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission, started with introducing some Cyber research projects funded under the Security Programme of the EU Framework Programme 7, and giving an outlook on the next framework programme called Horizon 2020. He explained how the European Commission, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Defence Agency (EDA) coordinate their research efforts under the European Framework Cooperation (EFC).
Michael Sieber, Assistant R&T Director at EDA, summarised the key messages from a joint EFC workshop organised in Brussels on 23 October 2012. There, a top-class panel of speakers, mainly from academia, shared their views on future research priorities. Cyber Security requires a multidisciplinary approach - it is not only technology. Service and product providers need incentives for more security and safety, to be integrated already by design, and they need to be more competitive. Among the users, higher level of security and safety awareness is required. Finally, specific profiles of Security and Defence will prompt more robust resilience, with specific technologies for detection, reaction, prevention/protection. In this respect, EDA will contribute to the EFC by its Cyber Defence Research Agenda, currently being established.
EDA Progress
Air Commodore Peter Round, EDA Capability Director, explained the exceptional progress the Agency has made, supported by a project team of 23 Member States' delegates, on a considerable portfolio of initiatives, such as stock-taking, training, conceptual work and intelligence. The EU circle of presentations was completed by Victoria Baines, Strategic Advisor on Cyber Crime from the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) in The Hague.
The show room offered newest Cyber technology presented by a number of exhibitors, and occassions for interesting discussions.
Parallel to this IQPC conference in London, Cyber Security/Defence conferences took place in Lille and Brussels around the same dates, with EDA invited to all of them. EDA R&T Director Christian Bréant addressed strategic technological issues in a high level industrial policy panel of the 5ème Forum International de la cybersécurité (FIC 2013) co-organised by the French Gendarmerie Nationale, Région Nord-Pas-de-Calais and CEIS. EDA Cyber Defence Project Officer Wolfgang Röhrig participated in another FIC 2013 panel (Crossed views on Cyber Security Strategies), before he moved on to the ESRT Global Cyber Security Conference in Brussels.
More information:
- News on Cyber Defence Workshop coorganised by EDA, European Commission and European Space Agency (25 Oct 2012)