Where will the conference take place?

The conference will be held in Cape Town, ZAF.

What is the format of the conference?

The conference is an in-person event, fostering direct engagement and collaboration among participants.

When does the conference begin?

The conference begins in the spring.

22nd International Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security (ICCWS 2027)

Name: 22nd International Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security (ICCWS 2027)
Start: 2027-03-18T00:00:00Z
End: 2027-03-19T00:00:00Z
Location: Cape Town

Mar 18–19, 2027Cape Town, South AfricaIn-person

Registration open

The International Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security (ICCWS) convenes in Cape Town, ZAF, bringing together experts to discuss the evolving landscape of cyber threats and defense strategies. This event provides a platform for academic researchers, government officials, and industry professionals to share knowledge and explore solutions to complex challenges in cyber warfare and security. The conference aims to address both the theoretical and practical aspects of securing digital infrastructure and national interests in the cyber domain.

Committees & topics

Topics
Cyber Warfare Strategies and Tactics · Cyber Security Technologies and Techniques · Cyber Threat Intelligence · Information Warfare and Psychological Operations · Legal and Ethical Issues in Cyber Warfare · Cyber Defence and Critical Infrastructure Protection · Emerging Technologies and Future Trends in Cybersecurity · Human Factors in Cyber Security

Why it matters

In an increasingly interconnected world, the integrity and security of digital systems are paramount. Cyber warfare poses significant risks to national security, economic stability, and public services. Events like ICCWS are crucial for fostering international cooperation and developing robust defenses against sophisticated cyber attacks. The discussions and research presented at this conference directly contribute to the global effort to understand, prevent, and respond to cyber threats, ensuring the resilience of critical infrastructure and information systems worldwide.

The location of the conference in ZAF highlights the global nature of cyber security challenges and the importance of diverse perspectives in addressing them. As cyber threats transcend geographical boundaries, collaborative efforts involving nations from all continents are essential. The insights shared at ICCWS will inform policy-making, technological advancements, and strategic planning in the ongoing struggle to maintain peace and security in cyberspace.

How to prepare

Participants preparing for ICCWS should focus on understanding the current geopolitical landscape as it pertains to cyber warfare. A thorough review of recent developments in cyber espionage, critical infrastructure protection, and the legal frameworks governing cyber conflict will be beneficial. Consider how different nations approach cyber defense and offense, and what implications these approaches have for international stability.

Delegates should also familiarize themselves with concepts such as "critical information infrastructure" and "critical infrastructure protection." Understanding the nuances of "algorithmic warfare" and "cognitive warfare" will provide a deeper appreciation of the advanced threats being discussed. Engaging with these complex topics will allow for more meaningful contributions to the conference's dialogues and networking opportunities.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 1 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

South Africa

As the host nation, ZAF plays a crucial role in facilitating discussions on cyber security challenges pertinent to the African continent and beyond.

Role in topic

ZAF provides a regional perspective on cyber threats and defense, contributing to a more inclusive global dialogue on cyber warfare and security.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Cyber Warfare Strategies and Tactics

State-sponsored cyber operations have evolved from isolated espionage campaigns in the 1990s into a recognized domain of warfare alongside land, sea, air, and space. Landmark incidents — Estonia 2007, Stuxnet against Iran's Natanz facility in 2010, the 2015 and 2016 attacks on Ukraine's power grid, NotPetya in 2017, and SolarWinds in 2020 — demonstrated that offensive cyber tools can produce strategic effects without crossing the threshold of armed conflict as traditionally understood. Major powers have formally stood up dedicated cyber commands (US Cyber Command, China's Strategic Support Force, Russia's GRU Unit 74455, the UK's National Cyber Force) and codified doctrines that integrate cyber with kinetic operations. Contemporary strategy debates center on persistent engagement and 'defend forward' doctrines, hybrid operations blending cyber with disinformation and proxy actors, and the use of ransomware ecosystems as deniable instruments of state policy. Russia's war in Ukraine has provided the first large-scale laboratory for integrated cyber-kinetic campaigning, while operations in the Middle East and Indo-Pacific reveal expanding tactical use of wiper malware, supply-chain compromise, and cloud-based intrusion sets. The core dispute is whether existing deterrence frameworks — borrowed from nuclear and conventional contexts — can stabilize a domain defined by attribution ambiguity, low entry costs, and constantly shifting offense-defense balances.

Key players

Cyber Security Technologies and Techniques

Defensive cybersecurity has shifted from perimeter-based models built on firewalls and signature antivirus toward layered architectures emphasizing zero trust, endpoint detection and response (EDR), extended detection and response (XDR), and continuous monitoring. The 2010s saw widespread adoption of SIEM platforms and threat hunting; the 2020s have added cloud-native security, software bills of materials (SBOMs) following Executive Order 14028, and AI-assisted detection. National frameworks such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, ISO/IEC 27001, and the EU's NIS2 Directive have become reference standards for governments and large enterprises. Key technical debates concern post-quantum cryptography migration (with NIST finalizing CRYSTALS-Kyber and related standards in 2024), the security implications of large language models embedded in defensive tooling, and the trade-offs between privacy-preserving cryptography and lawful access. The central policy question is how to scale modern defensive technology across small enterprises, developing states, and operational technology environments that often run on decades-old protocols and cannot easily be patched.

Key players

Cyber Threat Intelligence

Cyber threat intelligence (CTI) emerged as a distinct discipline in the early 2010s, when private firms such as Mandiant published the APT1 report (2013) attributing sustained intrusions to a unit of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Since then, CTI has matured around frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK, the Diamond Model, and STIX/TAXII for standardized indicator sharing. Public-private fusion centers — ISACs in the US, the EU's CSIRTs Network, and national CERTs — coordinate intelligence on adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), increasingly published with named attribution to specific state-linked groups. The field now faces tension between commercial threat intelligence vendors, whose business models depend on differentiated reporting, and government agencies that increasingly declassify and release indicators for collective defense. Attribution remains politically fraught: indictments against Russian GRU officers, Chinese MSS contractors, North Korean operators, and Iranian IRGC-linked actors have become regular diplomatic instruments, but rarely translate into prosecutions. Outstanding questions concern intelligence sharing across geopolitical blocs, the legal status of private-sector hack-back, and how to ensure that smaller states have meaningful access to actionable CTI.

Key players

Information Warfare and Psychological Operations

Information warfare predates the internet, but social media platforms have transformed scale, speed, and precision. Russia's Internet Research Agency operations targeting the 2016 US election, documented by the Mueller investigation and Senate Intelligence Committee reports, marked a watershed in recognizing computational propaganda as a strategic instrument. Subsequent campaigns around Brexit, COVID-19, the war in Ukraine, and conflicts in the Sahel have demonstrated how state and proxy actors weaponize narrative, deepfakes, and coordinated inauthentic behavior to shape political outcomes and erode trust in institutions. Responses vary sharply by jurisdiction. The EU's Digital Services Act (in force 2024) imposes due-diligence obligations on very large online platforms; the US relies on platform self-regulation constrained by First Amendment jurisprudence; authoritarian states use information control as a tool of domestic governance and external projection. Generative AI has compressed the cost of producing persuasive synthetic content, raising the salience of provenance standards such as C2PA. The core dispute pits free expression and open information ecosystems against the security imperative to counter foreign manipulation, with no consensus on definitions, attribution thresholds, or proportionate response.

Key players

Legal and Ethical Issues in Cyber Warfare

International legal frameworks for cyber operations remain unsettled. The 2013 and 2015 UN GGE reports affirmed that international law, including the UN Charter, applies in cyberspace, and the 2021 OEWG and subsequent Programme of Action discussions have continued to refine norms of responsible state behavior. The Tallinn Manual 2.0 (2017), produced under NATO CCDCOE auspices, offers the most detailed non-binding interpretation of how jus ad bellum and jus in bello apply to cyber operations, but states diverge on thresholds for 'use of force,' 'armed attack,' and sovereignty violations. Key disputes include whether below-threshold operations (espionage, election interference, ransomware enabling) trigger lawful countermeasures; how international humanitarian law constrains military cyber operations affecting civilian infrastructure, hospitals, and ICRC data; and whether a binding treaty is needed or feasible. Russia and China have promoted state-centric approaches emphasizing information security and sovereignty, while Western states defend the existing applicability-of-international-law framework. Ethical questions also extend to private-sector involvement, vulnerability stockpiling, and the legitimacy of offensive cyber operations conducted without parliamentary or judicial oversight.

Key players

Cyber Defence and Critical Infrastructure Protection

Critical infrastructure — power, water, finance, healthcare, transportation, and telecommunications — has become the principal target of strategically significant cyber operations. The 2015 BlackEnergy attack on Ukrainian utilities, the 2017 Triton/Trisis intrusion targeting petrochemical safety systems in Saudi Arabia, the 2021 Colonial Pipeline ransomware incident, and Volt Typhoon prepositioning revealed by US authorities in 2023–2024 have prompted urgent reassessment of defensive posture. The UN OEWG ICT process and the 2015 GGE norm against attacking critical infrastructure represent the principal multilateral guardrails, though enforcement is minimal. National responses have accelerated: the EU's NIS2 and CER Directives, US CISA's Cyber Performance Goals and sector risk management agencies, the UK's CAF, and Japan's Economic Security Promotion Act all impose binding obligations on operators. Yet operational technology (OT) and industrial control systems remain structurally vulnerable due to long lifecycles, legacy protocols, and supply-chain dependencies. The central debate is how to extend protection to small operators, hospitals, and developing-country infrastructure, and whether sectoral or horizontal regulation better closes systemic gaps.

Key players

Emerging Technologies and Future Trends in Cybersecurity

Several technological shifts are reshaping the cyber landscape simultaneously. Quantum computing threatens to break widely deployed public-key cryptography (RSA, ECC); NIST's 2024 finalization of post-quantum standards has triggered multi-year migration programs in governments and finance. Generative AI is being integrated into both offensive tooling (automated reconnaissance, vulnerability discovery, social engineering) and defensive operations (alert triage, code review, threat hunting), with implications for the offense-defense balance still uncertain. Confidential computing, homomorphic encryption, and decentralized identity are reshaping data protection paradigms. At the infrastructure layer, the proliferation of IoT devices, satellite mega-constellations, 5G/6G networks, and software-defined supply chains expands the attack surface dramatically. Geopolitical fragmentation — export controls on advanced semiconductors, restrictions on Chinese telecommunications equipment, and competing technology stacks — risks producing parallel cyber ecosystems with limited interoperability and divergent security baselines. The unresolved policy question is whether emerging technology will enable a defensive renaissance or accelerate offensive advantage, and how international cooperation can keep pace with private-sector innovation cycles.

Key players

Human Factors in Cyber Security

Despite massive investment in technical controls, the overwhelming majority of breaches still involve a human element — phishing, credential reuse, misconfiguration, or insider action. Verizon's annual Data Breach Investigations Report and ENISA's threat landscape reports have consistently identified social engineering as the leading initial access vector. Research in security usability, dating to Whitten and Tygar's 1999 'Why Johnny Can't Encrypt,' has shown that defenses that ignore cognitive load, workflow, and organizational culture systematically fail. Contemporary debates focus on the limits of awareness training, the design of phishing-resistant authentication (passkeys, FIDO2), the management of insider risk without creating surveillance cultures, and the mental health burden on SOC analysts and incident responders. Workforce shortages — ISC2 estimates a global gap of several million cybersecurity professionals — intersect with diversity and accessibility concerns. At the international level, capacity-building under the UN Programme of Action and the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise seeks to close human-capital gaps between advanced and developing economies, but funding and curricula remain uneven.

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for 22nd International Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security (ICCWS 2027).

Recent reporting to ground your prep

Arming an archipelago: Is time running out for Europe's oldest DMZ? | Euronews

Comprehensive approach to security: Federal Council launches consultation on Switzerland's security policy strategy

Europe's June Heatwave: Infrastructure Crisis

Ukraine Drone Strikes Crimea Power Grid

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Engagement Strategies

Hidden Stakeholders

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

Conflict Resolution

South Africa March 2027

By committee

Frequently asked questions

22nd International Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security (ICCWS 2027)

Mar 18–19, 2027Cape Town, South AfricaIn-person

Registration open

Committees & topics

Topics
Cyber Warfare Strategies and Tactics · Cyber Security Technologies and Techniques · Cyber Threat Intelligence · Information Warfare and Psychological Operations · Legal and Ethical Issues in Cyber Warfare · Cyber Defence and Critical Infrastructure Protection · Emerging Technologies and Future Trends in Cybersecurity · Human Factors in Cyber Security

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 1 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

South Africa

As the host nation, ZAF plays a crucial role in facilitating discussions on cyber security challenges pertinent to the African continent and beyond.

Role in topic

ZAF provides a regional perspective on cyber threats and defense, contributing to a more inclusive global dialogue on cyber warfare and security.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Cyber Warfare Strategies and Tactics

Key players

Cyber Security Technologies and Techniques

Key players

Cyber Threat Intelligence

Key players

Information Warfare and Psychological Operations

Key players

Legal and Ethical Issues in Cyber Warfare

Key players

Cyber Defence and Critical Infrastructure Protection

Key players

Emerging Technologies and Future Trends in Cybersecurity

Key players

Human Factors in Cyber Security

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for 22nd International Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security (ICCWS 2027).

Recent reporting to ground your prep

Arming an archipelago: Is time running out for Europe's oldest DMZ? | Euronews

Comprehensive approach to security: Federal Council launches consultation on Switzerland's security policy strategy

Europe's June Heatwave: Infrastructure Crisis

Ukraine Drone Strikes Crimea Power Grid

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Engagement Strategies

Hidden Stakeholders

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

Conflict Resolution

South Africa March 2027

By committee

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Resources

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