Schmitt speaks at the Nordic-Baltic Security Summit

Exeter Professor Influencing Cyber Policy

Professor Mike Schmitt, one of the world's top experts in international cyber law, travelled to Geneva and Tallinn this month to address key players in the world of cyber policy, law, and operations.

His journey began with a stop at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy where he discussed interoperability in cyber space at the Centre's annual Symposium for Senior NATO/Partnership for Peace Legal Advisers. The symposium brings together very senior legal advisers from governments throughout North America and Europe to discuss pressing security challenges.

Schmitt highlighted the areas of cyber law where consensus among States has yet to be achieved. Such disagreements over legal issues risks hobbling a collaborative response to hostile cyber operations mounted by a state or a non-state actor, such as a terrorist group engaged in destructive, even lethal, cyber attacks.

He then travelled to Tallinn, Estonia, where he spoke at the Nordic-Baltic Security Summit, an event that brings together government policy makers and representatives from the private sector involved in cyber affairs. Schmitt spoke on the responses available to States and private entities when targeted by hostile cyber operations. Focusing on the very limited remedies available to the private sector, he called for greater public-private cooperation in the field. Schmitt's work in the field continues as part of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affair's Hague Process, in which the Netherlands cooperates with other State and International Organizations to deliver cyber law capacity-building training around the world.

In 2018, this program will take him to regional courses in Korea, Singapore, Colombia, and Germany.

Date: 26 March 2018