W&M to Host Sideline Event for NATO Cyber Defence Pledge Conference 2021
William & Mary, in cooperation with the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Center of Excellence (CCDCOE) and King’s College London, will host the virtual “NATO Cyber Defence: A Decade of Opportunities and Challenges” on Friday, April 16, 2021, from 8:00 am until 10:00 EDT.
This is the official sideline event of the NATO Cyber Defence Pledge Conference, which convenes on April 15, 2021.
“NATO Cyber Defence: A Decade of Opportunities and Challenges” is open to the public and will be live streamed at NATO CCDCOE’s YouTube page. Individuals wishing to register and actively participate in the Q&A may do so here.
Stephen E. Hanson, William & Mary’s Vice Provost for International Affairs, will open the event with introductory remarks, followed by welcoming remarks from Douglas Jones, Chargé d’Affaires ad Interim at the U.S. Mission to NATO.
Agenda
- Session I, “NATO Cyber Defence and Offence in the International Environment,” explores how member states align their sovereign interests, capabilities and cyber doctrine with NATO operational requirements and strategic ambitions. NATO’s core activities involve complex cyberspace operations against state and non-state actors in highly contested digital environments. Sophisticated defensive and offensive cyber measures are required to identify, prevent, deter, defend against and respond to cyber threats, capabilities put at NATO’s disposal by its member states.
- Session II, “Resilience and Supply Chain Cybersecurity: Alliances and Partnerships,” addresses how NATO works with its regional partners, industry and other third parties to meet the supply chain cybersecurity challenge. Recent years have highlighted the challenge of securing global supply chains from cyber exploitation and subversion. This poses a direct threat to the security of NATO and its partners, which, in addition to sovereign assets, rely on infrastructures, goods and services produced, operated and owned by multiple civilian and commercial actors.
The event is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Mission to NATO to William & Mary’s Whole of Government Center of Excellence. William & Mary thanks the U.S. Mission to NATO for its generous support.
This event is part of a suite of cyber defense related activities organized by William & Mary and its partners. In December 2020, “Cyber Threats and NATO 2030: Horizon Scanning and Analysis” was published to elevate emerging issues faced by the Alliance. The book includes 13 chapters that look ahead to how NATO can best address the cyber threats, as well as opportunities and challenges from emerging and disruptive technologies in the cyber domain over the next decade. In Chapter 10, Chon Abraham, Associate Professor of Management Information Systems, William & Mary, and co-author Sally Daultrey, Chief Intelligence Analyst, Adenium Group, present their research on the challenges and enablers for more effective Cyber Threat Intelligence sharing between Japan, the US, and UK.
William & Mary, CCDCOE, and King’s College London will host more events in 2021 and 2022 funded by the US Mission to NATO. For more information, please contact wmcoe@wm.edu.
NATO’s Cyber Defence Pledge
At NATO’s Warsaw Summit in July 2016, Allied Heads of State and Government reaffirmed NATO’s defensive mandate and recognised cyberspace as a domain of operations in which NATO must defend itself as effectively as it does in the air, on land and at sea. This improved NATO’s ability to protect and conduct its missions and operations.
Allies also committed through a Cyber Defence Pledge to enhancing the cyber defences of their national networks and infrastructures, as a matter of priority. Each Ally will honour its responsibility to improve its resilience and ability to respond quickly and effectively to cyber attacks, including as part of hybrid campaigns. More information.
NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Center of Excellence (CCDCOE)
The NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE) is a NATO-accredited cyber efence hub focusing on research, training and exercises. It represents a community of 29 nations providing a 360-degree look at cyber defence, with expertise in technology, strategy, operations and law. The heart of the Centre is a diverse group of international experts from military, government, academia and industry backgrounds.
The CCDCOE is home to the Tallinn Manual 2.0, the most comprehensive guide on how international law applies to cyber operations. The Centre organises the world’s largest and most complex international live-fire cyber defence exercise Locked Shields and hosts the International Conference on Cyber Conflict (CyCon), a unique annual event in Tallinn, joining key experts and decision-makers from the global cyber defence community. As the Department Head for Cyberspace Operations Training and Education, the CCDCOE is responsible for identifying and coordinating education and training solutions in the field of cyber defence operations for all NATO bodies across the Alliance. The Centre is staffed and financed by its member nations: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. NATO-accredited centres of excellence are not part of the NATO Command Structure.
King’s College London
King’s College London is the fourth oldest university in England and provides world-class teaching in the heart of London to over 31,000 students from 150 countries. It has a distinguished reputation in law, the humanities, science—particularly health and medicine—and the social sciences, including international affairs. As King’s approaches its 200th anniversary in 2029, it continues to encourage the critical thinkers, problem-solvers and changemakers the world needs to address its diverse challenges.
Its School of Security Studies is dedicated to the understanding of security issues in an increasingly complex and uncertain world. Harnessing the depth and breadth of expertise across the War Studies and Defence Studies Departments, it is one of the largest communities of scholars in the world engaged in the teaching and research of all aspects of conflict, war, security and defence. Through our multi-disciplinary approach, we promote and value the study of security from different perspectives and methodologies. Our distinctiveness derives from the long history of King’s College London as a university dedicated to the advancement of knowledge, learning and understanding of issues in the service of society.
William & Mary
William & Mary, in Williamsburg, Virginia, carries on an educational tradition that traces back more than three centuries. As the second-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, William & Mary was founded by King William III and Queen Mary II of England as an American overseas campus representing the British Crown. Known as the alma mater of globally renowned historical figures such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and John Marshall, William & Mary today is a leading force for international education and training ground for international specialists around the world. William & Mary boasts more than 40 undergraduate programs and more than 40 graduate and professional degree programs, attracting students from 50 states and more than 60 foreign countries.
The mission of the William & Mary Whole of Government Center of Excellence is to train a new generation of future leaders who have hands-on, practical experience working across the different organizational cultures. These leaders must harmonize to facilitate true interagency collaboration— long before finding themselves forced to deal with such issues during a foreign deployment or national emergency. The work of the Center is primarily focused on training, education, and research related to interagency collaboration, complex national security challenges, and other public policy problems for mid-career policy professionals and military officers. The Center also brings together leaders from all levels of government and the military for symposia, discussions, and projects to promote creative, collaborative solutions to emerging issues.
