Abstract
5 days ATC on Research and Education for Cybersecurity of Critical Infrastructures (CI), will be a focused training on building resilience and securing critical CIs against cyber-attack, consisting of lectures and group exercises (CyberBastion Strategy Game). It will initiate an effort in Partner countries to build their own capacities and international cooperation in CI related R&D research, education, training and laboratories, taking into account recent developments in AI and the experience from agression on Ukraine. Successful cybersecurity solutions and research/education programmes will be shared, working groups will be formed and a joint research (possibly NATO SPS MYP) programme will be formulated.
Event description
Until recently, the dominant cybersecurity activities, both in area of research, training and in education, in NATO Partner countries have been centered on the protection of computers, computer networks and data and the issue of Critical Infrastructure (CI) protection has not been sufficiently covered. However nowadays, the most vulnerable facilities are numerous industrial systems using simple interconnected Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC). They are a “soft underbelly” of most of CIs, being an easy target for sophisticated cyberattacks, performed by well-coordinated teams, often politically motivated.
The need for enhancing cybersecurity research, training and education has been identified in many NATO Partner countries by the governments, industry and academia as a crucial factor of national security. Georgia, which survived a heavy cyberattack in 2008 is since then a target of repeated cyberattacks. Ukraine is since three years under the massive attacks from Russia, including cyberattacks on its infrastructure (e.g. attack on Kyivstar mobile operator).
At present, neither bachelor nor master programmes specialising in cybersecurity of CI are offered by Georgian universities and trainings for employees of CI has only started. This topic is a bit better tought in Ukraine but its impact is hamperd by war conditions and destroyed laboratories. Development of the training programmes in cybersecurity of CI is essential to have qualified staff that will be able to run critical systems.
The establishment of physical laboratories for cybersecurity research and online platforms are also vitally important for the development of the programme and conducting research and analyses in cybersecurity.
There is also a need to strengthen international collaboration in this area - as this might be crucial in organizing support to mitigate attack on one of the Partner countries (vide cyberattack on Georgia in 2008).
This event is a trial to respond to those needs and to facilitate cooperation on common issues in educational and research aspects of CI protection, is an international effort to meet CI cybersecurity challenges and will initiate further multi year international effort and cooperation. This ATC will directly relate to all three SPS key priorities in Cyber Defence area:
to "Critical infrastructure protection, including sharing of best practices, capacity building and policies" by a series of topical presentations of recent developments and by Country Reports to describe the situation in variuos countries (including unique experience of Ukraine in situation of open full-scale agression on their country);
"Support in developing cyber defence capabilities, including new technologies and support to the construction of information technology infrastructure" by discussing novel approaches based on Artificial Intelligence and Gamification;
Cyber defence situation awareness by development and deployment of cyber defense strategy games among participants, young researchers and students.
As described above this ATC will consist of a blended mix of trainings for engineers, exchange of recent results among scholars and researchers, exercises for young scientists and engineers and the strategy games to master the practical skills, building and boosting mutual trust and cooperation between those communities.
As a result of this ATC we expect increased knowledge among cybersecurity practicioners and, among scholars and researchers, a decisive impulse to start the coordinated international effort on creation (or update of existing) training and academic cybersecurity courses and the related research, role and equipment of cybersecurity laboratories, exercises and cyber strategy games.
We will form Working Groups, which (after the ATC) will continue the work to create proposals for further cooperation (likely in format of the NATO MYP project).