The Cybil Portal is the only online repository for international cyber capacity building projects and hosts a large library of resources for projects to use. The portal helps to improve the effectiveness of capacity building, its coordination and its transparency.
How Cybil came about
Cybil is an initiative of the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE). Plans for a new one-stop-shop knowledge portal on Cyber Capacity Building were first shared at the GFCE Annual Meeting in Singapore in 2018. At the next Annual Meeting in Addis Ababa in October 2019 Cybil was launched.
Management of Cybil
The GFCE has made funding available for the operation of Cybil and the GFCE Secretariat is responsible for its day-to-day operation.
The Cybil Steering Committee provides guidance, advice and views in support of the GFCE regarding the Cybil Portal, including its strategic, operational and tactical objectives and to oversee the Management of this globally owned knowledge platform. The Cybil Steering Committee 2021 – 2023 members are: Stephanie Borg Psaila (DiploFoundation), Carolin Weisser Harris (GCSCC), Bart Hogeveen (ASPI), Johann Ole Willers (NUPI), Damir “Gaus” Rajnovic (FIRST), Nthabiseng Pule (C3SA), Jenny Thornton (Get Safe Online), Gabriela Montes de Oca (OAS), Neil Robinson (NATO HQ), and Roeland van Zeigst (Dutch National Police). More information can be found in the Committee’s Terms of Reference.
Aims of the Cybil Portal
Cybil is a knowledge sharing portal for the international cyber capacity building community, facilitated by the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE). It is a place where governments, funders and implementing agencies can find and share best practices and practical information to support the design and delivery of capacity building projects and activities. Cybil also acts as a source of information on cyber security and cybercrime capacity building for civil society, academia and the technical community, in line with the GFCE’s commitment to transparency and inclusion.
The overall aim of Cybil is to establish a neutral, open and globally-owned multi-stakeholder knowledge-sharing platform that allows for:
- The sharing of data, information and results of global cyber capacity building efforts;
- Ensuring transparent access to data and information on cyber capacity building tools with a simple user interface;
- The integration of existing resources and information that are already available;
- A more effective use of cyber capacity building (CCB) resources for capacity building programming by the global GFCE community;
- The harmonisation of cyber capacity building initiatives and capacity building approaches.
Structure of Cybil
Cybil is structured around 3 types of content:
- Projects – A repository of past and present international cyber capacity building projects;
- Resources – A collection of resources (tools, publications, webinars and actor information) to help design and deliver international cyber capacity building projects;
- Events – Details of past and upcoming events relating to cyber capacity building from around the world.
A fundamental part of the design and structure of Cybil is focused on the GFCE Working Groups. The Working Groups themes are the result of a consultative needs assessment process and were adopted in the Delhi Communique. The Working Group themes encompass Cyber Security Policy and Strategy (Working Group A), Cyber Incident Management and Critical Infrastructure Protection (Working Group B), Cybercrime (Working Group C), Cyber Security Culture and Skills (Working Group D) and Cyber Security Standards (Working Group E). More information about the Working Groups can be found here.
Why the name Cybil?
The name Cybil is derived from the words Cyber and Capacity Building. Cybil also takes inspiration from the sibyls of the classical world, who were female prophets associated with wisdom.
