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Dr Katrin Suder, the State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry of Defence emphasised the growing importance of cyber defence for the military sector and advocated a deeper cooperation between security and business sector within Europe. ”Cyber defence is definitely a team-sport,” said Dr. Katrin Suder in her opening speech.
“We have to dispel some common myths about cyber defence in order to adapt to the current security environment: First of all, cyber defence is not only a subject of technical matters. It is primarily a strategic issue. Cyber-attacks affect policies, industry, and businesses, and require relevant policies in place. Second of all, to fight cyber-attacks and to build a defence fortress, it is crucial to see the big picture. Either it is an interstate conflict, a terrorist attack, a state failure, a failure of national government or a cyber-attack on state systems, it will always have a root cause. Every cyber-attack should be considered in a broader context,” stressed Jānis Sārts, the State Secretary at the Latvian Ministry of Defence during his keynote address.
As reported before, the Latvian Ministry of Defence aims to present the conference conclusions and proposals to the EU Member States and relevant EU institutions for further enhancing cyber defence in Europe. It is expected that the conference and its findings will make a valuable contribution to the debates on this relatively new topic within the EU.
With cyber defence issues playing an even greater role on today’s security agenda, the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2015 has made ‘Digital Europe’ one of its three policy priorities. Cyber security and defence form an inherent part of this priority.
The conference on “Cyber Defence in Europe” took place on 25-26 March in Berlin and was organised by the Latvian Ministry of Defence and the German Federal Ministry of Defence. Cyber defence issues were discussed in four panels – Implications of the EU`s Cyber Defence Policy Framework; the EU`s Mutual Defence and Solidarity Clause in the Cyber Security Context; Cyber Defence in EU Military Operations; and Civil-Military Cooperation in Cyber Defence.
