On 27 September the deep knowledge and understanding of Shaping Cybersecurity gathered in Potsdam where German Federal Foreign Office hosted a conference on essential topics.  

The day started off with a speech by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock who seriously focused on the current threats to our cyberspace.  

“Wars and conflicts are fought not only with bullets and cruise missiles but also with bots and malware”, she declared, highlighting the importance of Cyberspace protection, “a key factor in our national security strategy. /…/ Cybersecurity is human security – it is our security!” 

One of the panel discussions focused on Russia’s cyber war against Ukraine – lessons for effective cyber defense and international cooperation. Oleksandr Potii (Deputy Chairman of the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine) pointed out that the Russians have prepared their cyber-attacks for months and years. Previously, the concentration of kinetic (bombs, rockets, etc) and cyber-attacks were particularly high in the West Ukraine. 

It is impressive to say that all the high-level intervention key speakers at the conference were women: 

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock

Helga Schmid, Secretary General OSCE

Siemtje Möller, Parliamentary State Secretary, German Federal Ministry of Defence

Kemba Walden, Principal Deputy National Cyber Director, The White House

Dr. Katherine Getao, ICT Consultant, Kenya 

“ICT facilitates sharing between the developed and developing world – mutual sustainable security is our mutual sustainable prosperity.” – key takeaway from the amazing Dr. Katherine Getao. 

Liina Areng, our Regional Programme Lead at LAC4 shared a panel discussion on “Cyber Resilience & Norms for international stability.” 

Many thanks to German Federal Foreign Office for the great organization of this Conference and encouragement of the impressive discussions.