CYBERSEC 2021: Progress, diplomacy, and competing claims: notes from the conference.
By Katie Aulenbacher, the CyberWire staff
Mar 23, 2021

Together Aguainst Adversarial Internet surveyed questions of policy, economics, security, and innovation through the lens of our shared digital future.   

CYBERSEC 2021: Progress, diplomacy, and competing claims: notes from the conference.

How can the EU and US come together in the wake of Schrems II? What do the burgeoning threats of Russia and China mean for transatlantic alliances? These questions, and more, were debated at the fourth CYBERSEC Brussels Leaders Foresight Conference, headlined “Together Against Adversarial Internet.” Held March 18, 2021, the conference spanned five themes—business, state, defense, future, and EU digital policy foresight—and emphasized the “need for shared responsibility and coordinated responses towards cybersecurity.” Among the topics discussed were transatlantic partnership, data transfer agreements, digital sovereignty, and the Three Seas Initiative. 

CYBERSEC programs aim to “contextualise the threats, challenges and opportunities following the development of new technologies, the expansion of cyberspace and the digitalization of our everyday lives.” The meetings bring together a global cross sector of likeminded academics, politicians, and industry leaders with the goal of cementing solutions and alliances. 

The event was organized by the Kosciuszko Institute, a two decades old Warsaw think tank dedicated to offering “strategic recommendations to Poland and the EU towards a secure and effective cyberspace” that advances both “civil society and the private sector.”