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AFCEA – TechNet Europe 2013, Warsaw
CONFERENCE REPORT BIG DATA – Security Challenges/Demand for Spectrum AFCEA – TechNet Europe 2013, Warsaw 27 to 28 May 2013
TechNet Europe 2013, opened by the General Manager of AFCEA Europe, Major General (ret.) Klaus Peter Treche, focused on the challenges that powerful communications and information applications have to cope with today and in the future: Security Challenges in an era of cyber threats and increasing demand for spectrum resulting from advanced communications and IT applications. He explained to the some 250 participants from both sides of the Atlantic that the challenge of the conference on highly topical big data issues, addressing opinion-leaders and decision-makers in government and industry as well as representatives of academia, was to find “practical answers” to the many open issues related to the conference theme.
“The theme of this year’s TechNet Europe 2013 was chosen at a very good moment, since interest in this issue is growing (...)
Opening On behalf of the Polish Ministry of Defence, Vice Admiral Waldemar Glusko, Vice Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces, said he was happy to host TechNet Europe 2013 in Poland’s capital Warsaw. The conference theme was highly topical, because the Polish Armed Forces were facing the same problems as
“Big data are highly varied high-volume, high-speed information assets that demand cost-effective, innovative forms of information processing for enhanced insight and decision-making.” Gartner Inc
we are all engaged in the race against time. Cyber attacks are on the increase and we cannot exclude acts against critical infrastructure”, commented Polish Member of the European Parliament Krzystof Lisek in his welcome address.
Technical presentations by industry and specialist debates alternated with highlevel panel discussions and so-called “eye-openers” describing big data scenarios in a dense programme that set the political and industrial scene and captivated the audience during this two-day conference. all the partner nations and were looking for partners in order to solve the evolving issues, taking into account the fact that military operations today and in the future would always be accomplished in coalitions and would therefore require “common solutions”.
Mr Rini Goos, Deputy CE of the European Defence Agency (EDA), responding to
Conference Reports
General Treche’s and Admiral Glusko’s comments on the need for reliable communications both for ongoing military engagements and in the run-up to future missions, said: “A Common Operations Picture and Situation Awareness are the main drivers of the trend of ‘whatever, wherever, whenever’, but data centres are a challenge. Data storage is a huge weapon, creating possibilities for cross-checking information, but also creating dependency and vulnerability”. He underscored the high price to be paid for ubiquitous connectivity. Thus cyber security has become a top priority for the nations and EDA.
Setting the scene To set the scene, Petr Jirásek, Cyber Security Adviser and Chairman of the AFCEA Cyber Security Group, led a Panel composed of Eurocorps Commander Lt. Gen. de Bavinchove, NATO’s Director General International Military Staff Lt.Gen. Bornemann and John Palfreyman from IBM UK. Mr Palfreyman discussed the global technology needed for defence transformation, while General de Bavinchove drew on his 12 months’ experience as ISAF Commander to advise industry on communication and cyber protection issues. General Bornemann explained how NATO intended to tackle the problems posed by the financial crisis.
Big data in the field of security, business and defence During three panels moderated by former RAF Air Commodore Bruce Wynn, Mr Christop De Preterfrom LUCIAD, Belgium, and German Navy Captain Jörg Hillmann, industry representatives discussed big data prospects in the area of security, business and defence. Firstly focusing on Homeland and Border Security issues, secondly on questions resulting from multinational military operations and
thirdly on technical solutions in the fields of cross-domain guards, cyber resiliency and cyber espionage. While the defenceoriented panel dealt predominantly with operational aspects and the need for increased spectrum availability, the business-oriented panel focused on secure networks and data storage.
In particular, ORACLE Austria elaborated on the use of big data for intelligence and event management at the 2012 NATO Chicago Summit and LUCIAD Belgium on the challenges and opportunities arising from big data storage in the cloud. In spite of the many theoretical aspects to be discussed in the panels, the predominant issue in all sessions was that of the practical options for handling big data in the era of cyber threats.
Summarising the application panels, Professor Holger Mey, chief strategic planner of CASSIDIAN, provided a future-oriented industry perspective on security and defence, calling on politicians to meet the Major Gen. (ret.) K.-P. Treche and General Mieczyslawik Bienek. photo: Cezary Reginis, Norfolk
challenge of keeping strategic processes flowing at a time of growing threats and diminishing security and defence budgets.
Conclusions The closing highlight, picking up on the remarks about lessons learned by the Polish Armed Forces during ISAF operations, was the keynote address by General Mieczyslawik Bienek, Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, Norfolk/VA, which extended the debate to NATO’s conceptual ideas on cooperation with industry and first deliberations on a post-horizon 2025 strategy.
Finally, the President of AFCEA International, Kent Schneider, underlined in his closing remarks that there was clearly no single answer to the issue of dealing with big data. Nonetheless, he said, there had been a good discussion with the representatives of NATO, EDA, the Polish General Staff and the Warsaw Military University and a wide spread of industry perspectives. “I encourage you to continue discussing this issue”, he said.
Conference organiser Klaus-Peter Treche expressed his satisfaction with the depth of the discussions and excellent level of participation. He extended invitations to the AFCEA TechNet International to be held on 23-24 October 2013 in Lisbon, again to be organised in cooperation with the NATO Communications and Information Agency.
Participants’ opinions:
Miss Zoë Williams, you are CEO of Carlton Connections, a SME in the UK. What field does your company work in? Carlton Connections specialises in helping companies increase their business in international organisations and governments. Key to the success of this undertaking is a wide understanding of perspectives and developments in industry and academia, as well as the operational needs and requirements of organisations and governments.
So what is the added value of Technet Europe 2013 for you? Technet is the ideal conference to understand these things. I leave with a better understanding of the big data area: the increasing challenges and the future possibilities.
Kent Schneider, you are the President of AFCEA International and you came to Warsaw to observe TechNet 2013. Did the Conference give you an answer to big data issues? Yes, the number of views on the implementation and governance of big data was impressive. There was also a good deal of discussion on security in a big data environment. Many issues associated with big data were explored were explored, many solutions were suggested and case studies reported. While the big data issue does not lend itself to a single answer, this has been a useful and productive conference.
