“EU CyberNet is looking forward to organising its first Winter School in Helsinki. Building on the successes of past four Summer Schools and building on the most recent Summer School in Berlin in 2025, the first iteration of Winter School focuses on managing communication in crises and addressing challenges in the age of artificial intelligence to improve skills of EU CyberNet Expert Pool members to help them become future trainers for EU CyberNet global missions and beyond.” – Cecilia Popa, EU CyberNet Expert Lead.

“Today, an increasing number of organizations have become targets of various cyberattacks. Practical experience from different cases shows that when a cyberattack occurs, an organization cannot remain silent, but must communicate with its different target audiences and stakeholders. For this reason, it is important that organizations also take communication into account in their preparedness. Training events offer an excellent opportunity to learn from experts as well as to network and exchange information with colleagues.“ – Jussi Toivanen, Head of Communications at Traficom (NCSC-FI)

Winter School will equip participants with practical cybersecurity communication skills, enabling them to clearly translate technical issues for diverse audiences, support decision-making during cyber crises and design effective crisis communication strategies. It will emphasise concise, ethical and transparent messaging that builds trust, aligns with regulatory frameworks and works under real-world pressure. Participants will apply theoretical knowledge into practice during interactive group works and solidify their skills with discussing case studies from practical work from Finland and Estonia.

Winter School is led by two EU CyberNet instructors:

• Omar Ramadan whose senior experience spanning counter-terrorism cybercrime policing, private sector CISO leadership and cyber-crisis simulation, currently serving as Exercise Director at Room#42 and co-founder of ObsidianCorps, specialising in crisis communication, human behaviour and decision-making under pressure.
• Rosaria Talarico from FRONTEX, a strategic communication and crisis-management expert with senior experience across EU institutions, military public affairs, journalism and psychological operations, specializing in crisis communication, media relations, institutional storytelling and training under high-pressure, security-sensitive environments.

Application round for the Winter School closed in December 2025. The first Winter School welcomes more than 25 participants from 16 countries from Europe, North America, South America, the Caribbean and Africa. Participants come a variety of backgrounds within the cybersecurity domain and expertise in dealing with cyber crisis management from public and private sectors and academia.

The EU CyberNet Winter School will take place from 14 to 16 January 2026 in Helsinki, Finland and is organised by the EU CyberNet, a EU-funded project implemented by the Estonian Information System Authority and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in cooperation with the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency TRAFICOM.