In today’s increasingly complex cyberspace we see a variety of actors struggling to gain or maintain their position. The ubiquitous use of information and communication technologies has had a profound influence on how these actors pursue their goals and interests. The 8th International Conference on Cyber Conflict (CyCon 2016) will focus on ‘cyber power’ as one of the core elements of relations between different stakeholders and will discuss how the traditional concept of ‘power’ applies to cyberspace.

Both ‘hard’ and ‘soft power’ are being employed to achieve strategic and political goals through technical, legal and economic means. But how can we assess such power? How can we ensure that such power remains in the right hands? How can we ensure or enforce ‘cyber power’ without risking conflict escalation? How can we respond to exercises of this power with the right tools and measures? Is there a way to maintain a balance of power in cyberspace?
TOPICS

The conference solicits original unpublished research. In particular, though not exclusively, we are interested in the technical, legal, political, military and economic perspectives and case studies related to the following relevant to cyber power.

- Future threats
- Technical models, protocols and platforms
- Situation awareness
- Emerging attack methods
- Resilience
- Attribution and digital forensics
- Targets in cyberspace
- Data/information as power
- New models of warfare and conflict
- Development of cyber capabilities and assets (e.g. commercial, military, research)
- Assessing power
- Arms race, arms control and verification
- Deterrence
- International norms and governance
- Future of diplomacy
- National strategies and policies
- Hacktivism, proxy actors
- Information operations
- Alliances

Abstracts

Authors are required to first submit an abstract of the planned paper, which should describe the topic and lay out the scope, the structure, the methodology and findings of the research (300-500 words). Anonymised abstracts must be uploaded electronically to https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=cycon2016, for which an account creation is required.

Paper submission

After a preliminary review and acceptance of the abstract, the respective authors will be requested to submit original and unpublished paper meeting high academic research standards (up to 6000 words, incl. footnotes and references). Submitted papers must follow the guidelines provided here and the word template. The anonymised papers must be uploaded electronically to https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=cycon2016. Submitted papers will be subject to a double-blind peer review by the Programme Committee.

Conference publication

Accepted papers will be published in the printed conference publication with an ISBN and in technical cooperation with the IEEE Estonia Section. The papers will be made digitally available through the conference website. Copyright form is available here.

Presenting at CyCon

Authors of papers accepted for publishing in the conference publication are required to make a corresponding presentation at the conference.

Speakers will be offered travel (booked by NATO CCD COE), transfer from and to Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport, accommodation and lunches for the duration of the conference, and participation in social and sightseeing activities, depending on the final programme of the conference. Please note that in case of several authors for one paper, only one author will be offered the travel, accommodation and free entrance to the conference.

Questions and inquiries about the Call for Papers: cfp-at-ccdcoe.org