From: George C. Marshall Center for Security Studies

STOCKHOLM – Cyber and nanotechnologies took full focus for 26 of the Partnership for Peace Consortium’s Emerging Security Challenges Working Group during a two-day workshop hosted at the Swedish National Defense College in Stockholm Nov. 20-22.

Swedish Brig. Gen. Bengt Axelsson, vice rector of the college, provided opening remarks to workshop participants. Johan Hallenborg, keynote speaker and deputy director for international law, human rights and treaty law for the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, discussed freedom, security and Internet policy.

Workshop discussions focused around cyber and nanotechnologies. Specifically, talks centered on policy implications, the “Internet of things,” and the possibility of a development of a cyber security and emerging security challenges curriculum. The workshop included 26 government, nongovernment and private industry participants representing 20 organizations from 12 countries.

Natalia Spinu, chief of the cyber security center in Moldova and an alumni of the George C. Marshall European Center of Security Studies, said that full protection of cyber systems is a goal that is best achieved by states through cooperation and that it is a 21st century transnational issue.

“Often, more developed countries face risks from third world countries, where loss of control, compliance as well as poor security culture pose threats to all systems, services, and especially for the ‘Internet of things,’” Spinu said.

Spinu said she believes the new era brings new technologies that can be used by computer emergency response teams, government and individuals to ensure cyber security.

“The discussions during this workshop helped create understanding with these issues, as well as how new technologies can aid countries in fighting and preventing cyber threats,” Spinu said.

Phil Lark, program director for Program on Cyber Security Studies at the Marshall Center, emphasized the need for a comprehensive curriculum focused on cyber.

“One of the challenges we must examine is how to develop and, in some circumstances, define cyber-security education for officials from across the whole of government,” he said. “We must develop curriculum specifically designed for non-technical policy-makers and practitioners which is relevant, flexible and includes the private sector, ensuring we design a program that offers comprehensive approaches.”

Lark called the workshop “useful, especially the collaboration between the cyber security and nanotechnology expert presentations … as well as the collaboration with many global students and experts, which was extremely beneficial and unexpected.”

Costin Raiu, director of research and development at Kaspersky Lab said that he appreciated the unique opportunity to discuss how private/public partnerships can promote best practices in cyber security and help shape new programs to mitigate cyber threats.

“As more nation states rush to develop cyber-offensive capabilities and getting ready for [cyber]-war, it is easy to forget about the importance of peace, even if we’re talking about cyber-peace,” Raiu said.

Participant Leendert van Bochoven of IBM said he found the workshop a good example of how government and industry can and should collaborate to address emerging security challenges.

“There was a great exchange during the discussion, and I found it interesting to learn from the government perspectives on cyber,” he said. He also noted that cyber remains a challenging area, but “it will only be possible to address this in a collaborative approach between government and industry.”

Countries represented at the workshop included Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Georgia, Germany, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States.

Michael Edward Walsh, president of Emerging Science and Technology Policy Center, said, “This working group continues to provide an important forum for facilitating expert exchange on the security implications of emerging technologies.”

He added that by doing so, the working group “continues to provide a unique contribution to defense cooperation in the Partnership for Peace community and beyond.”

The PfPC’s Emerging Security Challenges working group was formally established in September 2012. Its mission is to attempt to identify and prioritize emerging security challenges and discuss possible political frameworks and mechanisms for dealing with them.

The working group is chaired by Dr. Detlef Puhl, NATO Emerging Security Challenges Division senior adviser, and Dr. Gustav Lindstrom, head of the Geneva Center for Security Policy’s emerging security challenges program. The Swiss Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sports also provided support for this workshop.

The PfPC operations staff is located at the Marshall Center in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. The PfPC senior advisory council is chaired by retired Lt. Gen. Keith W. Dayton, Marshall Center director.