Tracks & Workshops

CyCon 2012 will articulate itself in two parallel tracks and there will be an additional breakout session to give a more in-depth look at the strategic questions of cyber conflict.

Law & Policy Track

This track will focus on the challenges cyberspace currently presents to legal and policy practitioners and academics.

The track will first explore the dichotomy between territorial sovereignty, which has characterised the legal and political structure in international relations since 1648, and the presumed boundlessness of cyberspace. The respective presentations will address the principles of territoriality and national sovereignty in cyberspace; the impact of the global access to cyberspace upon diplomatic relations, human rights and democratic movements or uprisings; as well as that of restricting access. Closely related to the aforementioned topics, the notion of the battlefield in cyberspace as well as the laws of neutrality will be discussed.

Secondly, the notion of an “armed attack” (Art. 51 UN Charter and Art. 5 North Atlantic Treaty) in regard to cyberspace will be addressed from legal and political points of view. In this context, the challenge of attribution of malicious activities in cyberspace will be explored, to include discussion of legal implications as well as alternative possibilities for attribution of certain activities from a political perspective. The Law & Policy Track will then focus on the applicability of the Law of Armed Conflict to cyberspace, addressing topics such as, inter alia, identifying combatants, the notion of an “attack” (Art. 49 AP I), direct participation in hostilities and other issues related to targeting.

Lastly, other topics which require future deliberation will be presented. These will include, inter alia, deliberations on “low intensity conflicts” in cyberspace and the ethics of cyber warfare.

Law & Policy Track will offer relatively short but intensive presentations followed by moderated panel discussions, providing the audience an opportunity for active participation through questions, comments or statements.

Confirmed speakers for Legal and Policy Track include:
Prof. Dr Michael N. Schmitt, Chairman of the International Law Department, United States Naval War College.
Prof. Dr Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg, European University Viadrina.
Jason Healey, Atlantic Council, Head of the Cyber Statecraft Initiative.
Michele Markoff, Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues, United States Department of State.

Technical Track

This track will provide additional aspects to the discussion of applicability of Law of Armed Conflict by exploring the practical side of cyber conflict, cyber attack and cyber weapons. The track will contain a mix of practitioner and researcher presentations and discussions.

The track will begin by looking at case studies of some of the most influential cyber conflicts, attacks and weapons from recent history. Discussion will then proceed to hypothetical scenarios for future (cyber) conflicts.

The second major topic for the Ttck will be the question of attribution. This is one of the biggest challenges cyber security actors face at the policy, strategic and technical levels – knowing with reasonable certainty and demonstrability what actions were taken by whom. The respective presentations and discussions will cover the reasons behind this problem and review the state of the art solutions.

The last topic of the Technical Track will be the question of targeting in cyber conflict. Discussion will address the options for determination and verification of targets and management of collateral damage.

Confirmed speakers for the Technical Track include:
Latif Ladid, IPv6 Forum
Prof. Thomas Chen, Swansea University
Felix Lindner, Recurity Labs
Martin J. Muench, Gamma International
Ilias Chantzos, Symantec
Florian Walther, Chaos Computer Club

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