6 - 10 Dec, 2021
Katowice, Poland
Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 2021
The 2021 edition of the Internet Governance forum (IGF) will be hosted by the Government of Poland at the International Congress Center in Katowice from 6 to 10 December.
The headline of this year’s Forum is Internet United – the Internet connecting all its users into one community, responsible for its shape and functioning. The five-day meeting will include a large number of workshops, open forums, dynamic coalition meetings, outputs of intersessional activities, and other events that will give participants the opportunity to engage in open discussions on multiple Internet governance and digital policy issues. National and regional IGF initiatives (NRIs) will share experiences and discuss their specificities, challenges, and plans for the future. Several main sessions will also be part of the programme.
7 - 9 December 2021
Online
FIRST & AfricaCERT Virtual Symposium for the African and Arab Regions
This virtual symposium will be co-hosted by AfricaCERT and TunCERT.
Participants are expected to be comprised of global FIRST Member Teams and CSIRTs from the African and Arab regions. FIRST also expects to attract network operators, anti-abuse teams, and other security professionals from the African and Arab regions.
Program Agenda At-A-Glance
• December 7 | 11:00-18:15 UTC - Plenary Topics - Plenary Panel Discussions: Regional and International Initiatives, Frameworks and Related Standards, Open-source Tools and CSIRT Success Stories, Open Data (OSINT) and Threat Intelligence Sharing Platforms and Tools, Observed Malicious Cyber Criminality During COVID in the African and Arab Regions.
• December 8 – 11:00-15:00 UTC - Technical and Management Training Tracks - Training Opportunities: Open-source Tools for CSIRTs, MITRE ATT&CK Fundamentals, CSIRT Maturity Modeling, Protective DNS – Why It Matters and How to Deploy It On-prem. Designing and Running Cyber-exercises for CSIRTs.
• December 9 – 11:00-15:00 UTC - Technical and Management Training Tracks - Training Opportunities: Incident Response and Classification Workshop, MISP Fundamentals, National Cyber Crisis Management.
The event will be presented in English with French translation available during the plenary sessions on December 7.
8 Dec, 2021
Katowice, Poland
IGF Open Forum – Online knowledge portals for national cybersecurity capacity: challenges & opportunities
Access to knowledge and good practice is seen as one of the keys to progress cybersecurity capacity of nations. Therefore international efforts to improve cybersecurity and safety online are supported by the availability of information on national capacity data, key country documents (e.g. laws and policies), good practices, lessons learned and relevant projects available to those involved in capacity building, including governments, funders, implementers, and researchers. Several online portals such as the Cybil Knowledge Portal have been established in response to the need for easy access to this information. Their number and depth of their content grows each year with the challenge that the proliferation of these portals may make it more difficult for those leading national capacity building efforts to access and effectively use the data and information in them, especially when it might be duplicative or contradictory.
This session builds upon the session at the IGF session on 2016 “Fostering Dialogue between Internet Observatories and Maps”, and is an opportunity for the portal teams and those who use them to discuss what is working, reflect on the lessons learnt so far and discuss what should be done in the future to improve and coordinate.
30 November - 3 December 2021
Online
Freedom Online Conference 2021
The Freedom Online Conference which will be held virtually from Tuesday, 30 November to Friday, 3 December.
The Government of Finland is the Chair of the Freedom Online Coalition for 2021. This year, policymakers, civil society, business leaders, and technical experts will convene virtually to mark the Coalition’s 10-year anniversary by continuing to develop joint strategies and combine efforts to address the challenges, opportunities and potential of free, open and accessible Internet.
The Conference will focus on ‘Openness, Accessibility and Inclusion – Human Rights Online in the 2020´s’, which will be explored by a diverse group of stakeholders during panel sessions addressing the Freedom Online Coalition’s priority issues - digital inclusion, cybersecurity, disinformation, artificial intelligence, and challenges by authoritarian regimes, and beyond.
Themes & Topics
Organisation
3 December 2021
Hybrid format (Room XXVI, Palais des Nations, Geneva and online)., Switzerland
2021 Cyber Stability Conference: Towards a More Secure Cyberspace
Over the past two decades, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) Member States’ discussions have focused on the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) and their impact on international security. A breakthrough happened in 2021 with the successful conclusion of two multilateral cyber processes and the beginning of a new Open-Ended Working Group, the first ever with a 5-year mandate.
At UNIDIR’s annual flagship conference on cyber stability, we will convene representatives from government, industry and civil society, reflecting on the past and paving the way for the future. How can we build on past successes to advance the agenda for an open, secure, stable, accessible and peaceful ICT environment? What has been discussed and agreed so far? And what should be prioritised next?
30 Nov - 2 Dec, 2021
GFCE Annual Meeting 2021
Organisation
22 November - 2 December
Online
2021 African Commonwealth Virtual Conference and Workshops
This conference will bring together representatives from across the African Commonwealth, the wider African continent, and the UK to share knowledge and experience, and to build new relationships that will help you improve your national and regional cyber security.
The goals of the conference are to encourage and support nations working together to increase resilience against cyber threats, and to build a more cyber-secure future through partnership and collaboration.
- Week 1 of the conference will start with scene-setting introductions, an immersive cyber exercise, and discussion around sharing experience, knowledge and lessons learned to support cyber security maturity growth across the African Commonwealth.
- Week 2 of the conference will focus on cyber threats - both current and emerging - and how we can work together to combat them. Special consideration is given to the importance of national cyber security strategies and cyber legislation.
24 November 2021
Online
Protecting the healthcare sector from cyber harm
15:00 – 17:00 CEST
If the past year has taught us anything, it has to be that we need to protect the healthcare sector from cyberattacks. Between January and August 2021 alone, the CyberPeace Institute recorded 77 disruptive attacks on healthcare organizations, of which the majority resulted in operational disruptions to the sector. These have a direct human impact as people are unable to access healthcare services, a basic human right.
The Czech Republic, the CyberPeace Institute, and Microsoft are taking action. Together, they kick-started the ‘Protecting the Healthcare Sector from Cyber Harm’ project which, over a series of thematic workshops, brings together healthcare, cybersecurity, and regulatory experts to identify good practices needed to protect this vital infrastructure. This is a multistakeholder issue that requires the attention of government, industry and civil society actors in order to come up with truly global solutions.
This event will explore challenges pertaining to, inter alia, accountability, state responsibility, due diligence, international human rights law, International Humanitarian Law, sovereignty and non-intervention as well as the use of force. It will explore existing initiatives and outcomes, including innovative recent ones such as the Oxford Process, with the aim of distilling good practices and recommendations, which we will endeavour to compile in a compendium to be published at the end of the workshop series.
24 Nov, 2021
Online
Launch Event: 2nd Edition of the Guide to developing a National Cybersecurity Strategy
A Consortium of Partner Organisations Launches the 2nd Edition of the Guide to Developing a National Cybersecurity Strategy (NCS) on 24 November 12:00 - 15:00 UTC. Register here: https://launchncsguide2.gfce-events.com/
Digital technologies can be a powerful enabler and catalyst of inclusive and sustainable socio-economic development, but only if they are safe, secure, and resilient. In order to reap the benefits and manage the challenges of digitalization, countries need to frame their digital transformation and the proliferation of ICT-enabled infrastructures and services within a comprehensive National Cybersecurity Strategy.
To support governments in this endeavour, a consortium of partner organisations from the public, private sectors, civil society and academia jointly developed and published a Guide to Developing a National Cybersecurity Strategy (NCS) in 2018. Since then, most countries have both accelerated their digital transformation and become increasingly concerned about the immediate and future threats to their critical services, infrastructures, institutions, and businesses, as well as to international peace and security that could result from cyber incidents.
The fast-changing nature of cyberspace, the increased dependency on ICTs, and the proliferation of digital risks all call for continuous improvements to national cybersecurity strategies. For this reason, the authors of the Guide have updated its content to reflect the evolving nature of cyberspace, as well as the main trends that can impact cybersecurity and should therefore be included into national strategic planning. The objective of this second edition is to instigate strategic thinking and help national cybersecurity stakeholders in the development and implementation of such national cybersecurity strategies and policies.
Themes & Topics
8 - 19 Nov, 2021
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC)
The International Telecommunication Union, through its Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT), organizes a World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC) in the period between two Plenipotentiary Conferences to consider topics, projects and programmes relevant to telecommunication development.
WTDCs set the strategies and objectives for the development of telecommunication/ICT, providing future direction and guidance to the ITU Telecommunication Development Sector (ITU-D).
