CyCon 2015, the 7th annual NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence conference on cyber conflict, opens tomorrow. The conference focuses on the construction of the Internet and its potential future development.
“The tracks for the internet were laid 40 years ago. No one could have dreamt then of what the net would become by now,” said Colonel Artur Suzik, director of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence that organises CyCon. “Half of the planet’s population uses the Internet and 50 billion devices are expected to be connected by 2020,” Suzik added. “Yet only in 1990 did Sir Tim Berners-Lee coin the phrase ‘World Wide Web’. Mosaic, the first browser, was released in 1993. Facebook became available to the public in 2004 and Uber, the ride-sharing service, started their Estonian activities just two weeks ago.“
Suzik emphasized at the importance of discussing the future developments: “It is essential that we re-examine these 40-year-old foundations and wonder if they are about to collapse under the pressure of growth. Are we at the verge of a revolution? How will the Internet grow? What is the infrastructure that we need to support the unprecedented amount of data?”
The topic “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, CyCon 2015, include 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.