As part of this year's German Forum on Security Policy at the Federal Academy for Security Policy (BAKS), the IFSH Berlin office hosted an online discussion on cyber defence. Cyber security experts discussed how states can deal with the current threats posed by cyber attacks and how it might be possible to contain cyber attacks through arms control.
Dr Matthias Schulze, head of the IFSH research focus International Cyber Security, gave a comparative overview of the status of international offensive cyber programmes. He pointed out commonalities and emphasised, among other things, that the cooperative exchange of information between individual states about threat situations is essential. Dr Schulze also emphasised the need for an effective strategy against influence operations and information warfare. Then Dr Thomas Reinhold, research associate in PRIF's Cluster for Natural and Technical Science Arms Control Research, discussed technical approaches to cyber arms control. He explained what cyber weapons are, what disarmament in cyberspace looks like and how escalations of cyber conflicts could be prevented.
Following their presentations, the experts answered numerous questions from the audience, which mainly consisted of representatives from the specialist community. Anja Dahlmann, head of the IFSH's Berlin office, moderated the event. The event was streamed live on the BAKS YouTube channel (in German).
You can watch a recording of the event on the IFSH YouTube channel.