Re-watch the Conference below!
What? Conference and Table-Top Exercise
When? 24th of November 2020 10:00-14:30 (GMT+2)
Where? ONLINE
Who? The conference and the cyber security exercise is beneficial for CEC representatives of different countries and think tanks, that can share the gained experience among their cooperation partners and prevent risks in organising elections, therefore protecting the fundamental institution of the democracies.
Why? Democratic processes across the world are more and more relying on various digital systems that are prime targets for various state-sponsored activities, hacking-and-doxing campaigns and advanced persistent threat-type of attacks. By compromising the integrity of the central tool of democracy – free and fair elections – the whole societies can be put out of balance. In Estonia, we believe that there is great potential in avoiding risks and taking measures to build the resilience of the democratic election processes.
We welcome on stage former President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Director of International Policy at the Cyber Policy Centre at Stanford University Marietje Schaake, and other distinguished experts on election and cyber security.
The Conference and the Strategic Exercise provide you with a unique opportunity to discuss and learn online the topics that reflect the challenges of conducting secure elections in the digital era.
The conference is organised by e-Governance Academy, CybExer Technologies, Estonian National Electoral Committee, and supported by Microsoft and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.
E-GOVERNANCE ACADEMY
eGA is a non-governmental, non-profit, non-partisan organization, founded for the creation and transfer of knowledge concerning e-governance, e-democracy and the development of civil society.
To date, eGA has cooperated with more than 200 organisations and trained more than 6,500 officials in 130 countries and regions. Our experts are playing key roles in e-government and digital transformation policy planning and implementation, including developing secure nation’s digital transformation and cyberspace. E-Governance Academy (eGA) has the experience to provide e-governance and change management related consultancy services, study tours, training and conferences from 2002, both in Estonia and abroad. eGA’s team of experts has hands-on experience in the e-government organizations building, legislation development, change management, digital democratic processes and ICT architecture planning.
CYBEXER
CybExer Technologies OÜ is a NATO-awarded Estonian cybersecurity company with the mission to empower organisations in ensuring their cyber security. Together with its delivery partners, CybExer offers a comprehensive roadmap towards ever increasing robustness and continuity in the face of evolving cyber threats. CybExer’s risk-based approach helps organisations to priorities their investments and efforts to improve readiness and effectiveness within their budget constraints. CybExer’s STRATEX platform has been employed to organise complex, large-scale and high-visibility exercises, such as EU CYBRID2017 for all EU Ministers of Defence during the Estonian EU Council Presidency in September 2017, NATO Military Committee Cyber Away Day in June 2018, and the hybrid table-top exercise for EU Ministers of Internal Affairs exercises during the Finnish EU Council Presidency in July 2019.
STATE ELECTORAL OFFICE OF ESTONIA
The State Electoral Office is the top-level election management body in Estonia. The Office ensures that the elections are held in accordance with the law, and organizes and ascertains the results of Internet Voting. In addition, it exercises supervision over the activities of the electoral managers and organizes the development and management of the technical solutions necessary for the performance of the duties arising from the electoral acts. The State Electoral Office is institutionally independent although it has been formed within the Chancellery of the Riigikogu (Parliament).
MICROSOFT
Microsoft enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. The company mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
KONRAD ADENAUER FOUNDATION
The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) is a political foundation. In Germany, 16 regional offices offer a wide variety of civic education conferences and events. KAS offices abroad are in charge of over 200 projects in more than 120 countries. As a think-tank and consulting agency, KAS soundly researched scientific fundamental concepts and current analyses are meant to offer a basis for possible political action. The Berlin Academy is the national forum of dialogue between the spheres of politics, economy, science, and society. KAS conferences and events attract people who ‘have something to say’. In Germany, KAS offers more than 2,500 events per year which attract 145,000 participants.
Re-watch the CyberConf 2020!
Re-watch the CyberConf 2020!
Welcome speech by Hannes Astok, Executive Director of e-Governance Academy
Keynote by Oliver Kask
Keynote by Oliver Kask
In his keyword, Oliver Kask, Head of the National Electoral Committee of Estonia noted that already today it is not possible to conduct elections without digital technologies.
What Scope, What Responsibilities?
What Scope, What Responsibilities?
Discussion on voting integrity and the use of technology in elections featured Former President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Marietje Schaake, Director of International Policy at the Cyber Policy Centre at Stanford University, and Liisa Past, Head of Cyber Security Business Development at Cybernetica. Moderator Merle Maigre, Senior Expert on Cyber Security at e-Governance Academy.
Case Studies and Best Practices
Case Studies and Best Practices
The discussion featured Marina Kaljurand, Member of European Parliament and Jan Neutze, Senior Director for Digital Diplomacy at Microsoft outline how Microsoft. Moderated by Robert Krimmer, Professor of e-Governance at University of Tartu.
Toomas Hendrik Ilves: There is no need to…
Toomas Hendrik Ilves: There is no need to use paper…
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The conference includes two sessions. The first session gives an overview of the complexity of elections and introduce main cyber threats to the Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs). Moreover, the discussion focuses on the role of the government, political parties and private sector – in terms of accountability or taking responsibility about various issues related with election interference.
The second session discusses how public cyber awareness impacts on elections and the stability of societies.
The exercise will be carried out on Cybexer Technologies Strategic Exercise Platform STRATEX. It provides participants with a unique experience of participating in a fictional cyber crisis by taking concrete crisis management decisions and exploring the (in)formal frameworks that govern decision-making processes.
The representatives of Electoral Management Bodies and Central Election Committees are welcome to participate in the exercise. Other participants can also register to the exercise and take part in the simulation of the strategic decision-making process.
Participants of the exercise are not requested to have special technological skills. The number of participants for the exercise is limited.
REQUIREMENTS
- Participants of the exercise are not requested to have special technological skills.
- The number of attendees for the strategic exercise is limited, requiring prior registration.
- Every participant will have individual access to the STRATEX platform via their personal device.
- High-speed internet connection is required.
Participants of the exercise go through a simulated threat scenario where the scenario injects exercise questions, and the participants’ answers are all managed via our proprietary STRATEX platform. STRATEX is a unique software platform that facilitates the process of carrying out strategic decision-making exercises including a collection of threat scenarios based on past real-life incidents and on the vast experience in managing cyber exercises at a very high level.
The STRATEX exercise supports and informs on the following processes:
- Increases awareness and contributes to a better understanding of the emerging challenges and threats in cyberspace;
- Enhances knowledge-sharing and increase cooperation in cyber crisis management;
- Identifies shortcomings in doctrine, authority and organization; additionally, test the efficacy of regulations, contingency and cooperation plans.
- Develops strategic leaders’ analysis capability by applying new concepts and methodologies to manage cyber crises (in an exercise context) that may lead to the adoption of more effective organizational strategies;
- Promotes a culture of cyber security and cyber defence that may stimulate national synergies and foster international cooperation;
- Enables participants (potential strategic decision-makers) to make decisions on basis of situational awareness of cyber crisis, their nature and likelihood and also the impact of the options to be chosen.
PART 1 – CONFERENCE
10.00 – 10.15 Opening and Key Note
- Hannes Astok, Executive Director at e-Governance Academy (eGA)
- Oliver Kask, Head of the National Electoral Committee of Estonia
10.15 – 11.15 Panel Discussion — What Scope, what responsibilities?
- H. E. Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Former President of Estonia
- Marietje Schaake, Director of International Policy at Cyber Policy Centre at Stanford University
- Liisa Past, Head of Cyber Security Business Development, Cybernetica
- Moderator: Merle Maigre, Senior Expert on Cyber Security at e-Governance Academy (eGA)
11.15 – 12.05 Panel Discussion Case Studies and Best Practices
- Marina Kaljurand, Member of European Parliament
- Dr Beata Martin-Rozumiłowicz, Director for Europe and Eurasia at International Foundation for Electoral Systems
- Jan Neutze, Senior Director for Digital Diplomacy at Microsoft
- Moderator: Dr Robert Krimmer, Professor of e-Governance at Tallinn University of Technology
12.05 – 12.15 Discussion Conclusions and Way Forward
12.15 – 12.30 Break
PART 2 – TABLE-TOP EXERCISE
12.30 – 14.20 The Strategic Election Interference Simulation
- Lauri Almann, Co-founder of CybExer Technologies
- Kari-Pekka Rannikko, Senior Strategy Advisor at CybExer Technologies
14.10 – 14.30 Wrap-up of the seminar
Speakers
Toomas Hendrik Ilves
Previous President of Estonia
Marietje Schaake
International Policy Director
at the Cyber Policy Center
Liisa Past
Head of Cyber Security Business Development, Cybernetica
Merle Maigre
Senior Cyber Security Expert
at e-Governance Academy
Oliver Kask
Head of the National Electoral
Committee of Estonia
Lauri Almann
Co-founder of CybExer Technologies
Robert Krimmer
Professor of e-Governance at
University of Tartu, Estonia
Dr Beata Martin-Rozumiłowicz
Director for Europe and Eurasia and
Technical Adviser for Technology in
Elections at the International
Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES)
Marina Kaljurand
Member of European Parliament
Jan Neutze
Senior Director for Digital Diplomacy,
Microsoft
Hannes Astok
Executive Director at e-Governance Academy
Kari-Pekka Rannikko
Senior Strategy Advisor
at CybExer Technologies