Manama: The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) will on Thursday launch in Bahrain its Cyber Security Expert Series with a debate on “Cyber Security: Strategies in the Gulf”. The London-based authority on global security, political risk and military conflict, said that the inaugural session of the Cyber Security Programme would bring “leading experts to the IISS-Middle East (IISS-ME) headquarters in Bahrain for the launch of the series.”
According to a press release, cyber experts Dr John B Sheldon, Founder, and Principal Consultant, The Torridon Group, and Lt Col Mike Kerttunen, Director, Department of Leadership, Baltic Defence College, will be on the Davos-styled panel discussion. Chris Spirito, International Cyber Lead, The MITRE Corporation, will chair the panel moderated by Dr Eneken Tikk-Ringas, Senior Fellow for Cyber Security, IISS.
“The experts will address cyber conflict in the region and in Bahrain, government and private sector remedies against cyber conflict, baseline cyber defence and security capabilities, as well as education and training requirements for the cyber security workforce,” IISS said. “The IISS Cyber Security Programme provides world expertise and sound policy-relevant discussion on issues of cyber security, while focussing on the conscious exercise of state power in cyberspace and promoting strategic policy level thinking about cyber security issues.
The Cyber Security Expert Series draws on the IISS’s network of world experts to further debate and discussion on cyber issues that presently impact both the region, and the international community,” IISS said.
IISS-Middle East was opened in May 2010 in Bahrain and “serves as a base for the Institute’s research programmes and activities throughout the region.” IISS holds every year in December the Manama Dialogue, an international security conference attended by senior political, defence and security officials and officers from more than 20 countries. The 10th Manama Dialogue is scheduled to be hosted by Bahrain on December 5-7, 2014.
