International cooperation in defending cyber space needs to focus on legal issues and extend beyond the Euro-Atlantic area, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, the President of the Republic of Estonia emphasized today. He was briefed on the latest developments at the Tallinn-based NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence.
“You do the really important work. CyCon, the annual conference on cyber conflict is a brilliant idea. The Locked Shields technical exercise is developed over and over again every year,” highlighted President Ilves.
“Thank you for doing a superb job, far above and beyond the call of duty,” he wrote in the guest book of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence. “I am particularly glad about your work in the field of international law. I have seen a focus on technology in the in the past five years but we really need to concentrate on law,” Ilves said.
“With cyber space, our understanding of defence has moved away from territorial concepts. It has become about bringing together likeminded liberal democracies with a strong rule of law.” Therefore, Ilves said, international cooperation in protecting cyber space has to be based on shared values and extend beyond the Euro-Atlantic area.
The NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (NATO CCD COE) is a NATO-accredited knowledge hub, research institution and training and exercise facility. The Tallinn-based international military organisation focuses on interdisciplinary applied research, as well as consultations, trainings and exercises in the field of cyber security.
The heart of the Centre is a diverse group of international experts. Legal scholars, policy and strategy specialists join forces with technology researchers, all coming from military, government and industry backgrounds.
Membership of the Centre is open to all Allies. As of September 2016, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States have signed on as Sponsoring Nations of the Centre. Austria and Finland have become Contributing Participants – the status available for non-NATO nations.
