CyberPeace Digest - February 2024

Dear Readers,

We are thrilled to have met the first cohort of the year for our Cyber School. This unique free training programme was developed in partnership with Microsoft with the aim to provide foundational cybersecurity knowledge to individuals with limited technical backgrounds.

Additionally, we delve into the outcomes of the recent UN Ad Hoc Committee session on cybercrime. While progress has been made, challenges remain in reaching a consensus on the draft treaty.

The month of February also meant preparations for our 17th Executive Board Meeting. Learn more about the meeting and the Executive Board of the CyberPeace Institute. Stay tuned for updates from our upcoming Executive Board Meeting in Madrid!

Thank you for joining us for this month's newsletter!

Cyber School

Microsoft and the CyberPeace Institute have teamed-up to create a unique free offer launching a new cohort of the Cyber School. The aim of the training is offering a first step into the professional field of cybersecurity for people with no or little technical knowledge. Not only do we need more cybersecurity experts, the demand is also on the other side with more than 400 people registering for the Cyber School.

The kick-off of the 8-week virtual course took place on 6 February and over the next two months, the participants will learn the foundations of cybersecurity, organisational resilience as well as trends and career opportunities in cybersecurity.

After the first two sessions, our students had the chance to dive into the foundations of cybersecurity and learn about the threat landscape in cyberspace. This is the feedback after the first two sessions:

“I find the cyber school to be very enlightening, eye-opening. It brings awareness to how prevalent technical skills are in any organisation. This is something I wasn’t paying attention to."

The Power of Partnerships and Collaboration

Over the past years, the projects of the CyberPeace Institute have proven the transformative potential of partnerships, especially in the nonprofit sector. This blogpost emphasises the crucial role of unity around a shared goal among stakeholders in the quest for cyber peace. By forging alliances across governments, industries, and civil society, nonprofits can unleash a wave of innovation and collective action to confront cybersecurity challenges head-on.

One coalition that carries this very spirit of collaboration for cybersecurity is nonprofit cyber. In the short time of two years since its founding, nonprofit cyber has proven the commitment and dedication of its community working towards a more safe and secure cyberspace. This initiative and the community around it bring us closer to our shared goal: cybersecurity for all. We are proud to be part of the coalition and we are very honoured to contribute to nonprofit cyber as a new member of the executive committee. We congratulate our fellow members for the achievements so far and all that lies ahead.

UN Cybercrime Convention

The recent session of the Ad Hoc Committee (AHC) negotiating a new United Nations cybercrime convention ended without a conclusive agreement. While some progress was made, the draft treaty fell short of expectations. You can read more about the concluding session and its implications in our latest blog post. 

Before the concluding session, the CyberPeace Institute, alongside other stakeholders, expressed disappointment that the draft treaty was still not fit for purpose. Civil society organisations, including over a hundred NGOs, reiterated their red lines for the negotiated text in an open letter to the Chair of the AHC. Additionally, an open letter to the Chair called for significant changes in the emerging Cybercrime Convention.

While the AHC negotiations are extended, achieving a consensus remains uncertain. States agreed to suspend the session and meet again at a later stage while adhering to the initial deadline.

You can explore our submissions to UN fora on our website.

Quantum Computing, A Primer

Effective cryptography is essential to ensure that our data and digital transactions remain secure. However, Quantum Computing (QC) will fundamentally break cryptography as we know it today. But this technology might not be around for another ten to thirty years, so why are cybersecurity experts so concerned today?

It is an important part of our foresight activities, to monitor the impact of emerging and disruptive technologies on cybersecurity and help NGOs navigate technological disruptions. Our new “Future(s) of CyberPeace” blog post on quantum computing explores this and many other questions.

Dive with us into the world of QC. Learn what QC is and how it works. Explore the potential of QC to transform industries and accelerate the achievement of the SDGs — but also the serious concerns QC raises for cybersecurity and cryptography. We explore the importance of cryptography to ensure the privacy and security of our digital world and how QC will risk breaking cryptography as we know it today.

How Non-Profits and NGOs deal with Cyberattacks

Almost half of the NGOs based from the context of International Geneva we questioned for our latest CyberPeace Analytical Report have been victims of a cyberattack in the past three years.

It's an unfortunate reality, but NGOs and humanitarian organisations are increasingly facing cyber threats, including data breaches and ransomware attacks.

Ever wondered why cybercriminals target those doing the most good? 

Kevin Poireault from Infosecurity Magazine dedicated an in-depth article to this reality. He offers a deep dive into recent attacks on the ICRC or Amnesty International Geneva. Our CEO Stéphane Duguin offers insightful context to the threat landscape NGOs have to face. The article showcases Organisations who support non-profits in this context - how we at the CyberPeace Institute offer support to other NGOs.

17th Executive Board Meeting

On 4 March 2024, the Executive Board of the CyberPeace Institute will meet for their 17th Board Meeting in Madrid, Spain. The Board comprises individuals with international expertise in digital and cyber matters which comes together once per quarter. To learn more about how the board is constituted and how they work, visit our dedicated webpage.

We are very happy this occasion takes place in Madrid, as we not only have two Executive Board members from Spain Alejandro Becerra Gonzalez, who is the Global Information Security Director in Telefonica and Alejandro Romero, the Chief Operations Officer at Constella. In addition, we also work with Spanish NGOs, such as Camina Nepal and companies through our CyberPeace Builders Programme - Inditex being one of our generous donors.