2015 will be a busy year for the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence. The Centre will work on the much-appreciated flagship projects while the applied research as well as trainings and exercises will continue to mirror developments in the sector as well as the needs of our member nations, partners, NATO and Allies.
The annual Locked Shields cyber defence exercise will embrace new technologies and attack sectors hand-in-hand with developing threats. The Tallinn Manual process focuses on preparations for Tallinn 2.0 (see story below). The much-anticipated CyCon conference looks at architectures in cyberspace in 2015.
The Law and Policy Branch of the Centre will continue to analyse and educate on the most pressing issues in cyber defence. In 2015 these will range from a case study of the Ukraine-Russia conflict to research of rules of engagement in cyberspace and the implications of locating critical information infrastructure outside of national borders.
The newly-established Strategy Branch will support several initiatives within NATO. For example, the effects of urbanization to cyber defence will be studied and the the comparative glossary of cyber definitions substantially updated.
In addition to putting together the annual Locked Shields exercise, the technology experts at the Centre will offer digital forensics and penetration testing support to other NATO and Centre’s exercises. A study on detecting and mitigating risks from insiders is among the numerous Technology Branch research projects.