Keynote Speakers Don’t miss these first class talks on some of the hot topics of the day


Dr Artūras PETKUS
NATO Energy Security Centre of Excellence, NATO ENSEC COE, Lithuania

CEIP and Energy Security in Perspective of NATO Energy Security Center of Excellence (CIPRNet Lecture)



Cyber attacks on key energy infrastructure – and on the electricity system in particular – are increasing, both in frequency and sophistication (U.S. Department of Homeland Security). Some countries adopt military doctrines, that could be called "Hybrid War". Unlike its conventional counterpart, hybrid war blends elements of diplomacy, clandestine action, disinformation, sabotage, irregular troops and standard kinetic force to achieve strategic objectives. While hybrid war takes place over several dimensions, it appears that critical energy infrastructure and energy industry of any country could be targeted as part of a wider campaign to reduce the county’s ability and willingness to resist. Therefore NATO strives to "continue to develop NATO’s capacity to support national authorities in protecting critical infrastructure, as well as enhancing their resilience against energy supply disruptions that could affect national and collective defence, including hybrid and cyber threats" (NATO Warsaw Summit Declaration). NATO Energy Security Center’s of Excellence contribution to this priority will be presented.

Dr. Artūras Petkus joined the Strategic Analysis and Research Division of the NATO Energy Security Centre of Excellence in 2015 as a Head of division. His main areas of responsibility are: performance of energy security related analysis on strategic level; development of methodology and theoretical approach for assessment of energy security risks and threats, contribution to development of NATO Strategic Foresight Analysis; research in field of Energy Security (contribution to NATO CMX scenario, etc.)

Commander (French Navy) Cyril STYLIANIDIS
Ministry of Interior, General Directorate for Civil Protection and Crisis Management, France

The "Cellule Interministeriel de Crise" (CIC), the French tool for interministerial level crisis management



The increasing use of the Crisis Interministerial Cell (CIC) in France demonstrates how most crisis situations are now quickly rated as joint, interministerial ones. This reveals the important need for a smooth strategic level coordination in order to bring a response as efficient as possible to these crises. After a brief introduction on how crisis management is organized in France, I will introduce the Crisis Interministerial Cell (CIC) in all aspects: When, What, Why etc. and will intend to show how this tool complements efficiently, from a strategic level perspective, the actions taken by local level crisis managers and decision makers. I will illustrate this presentation with examples picked up from relatively recent critical situations from France, ranging from Bataclan’s terrorist attacks to large events such as COP 21, EURO 2016 and even… waves of farmers converging on Paris to protest.

CDR Stylianidis is currently appointed to the French ministry of interior, Directorate of civil security and crisis management in the office in charge of planning regarding crisis management. Amongst other tasks, he brings naval expertise to projects involving crisis management within a maritime environment and is a member of the coordination cell running the CIC. He is more specifically in charge of coordinating the activation of the anticipation CIC cell. He is also a naval liaison officer with the French Joint and Naval HQs in Paris. Surface warfare officer since 1989, he has been fulfilling numerous positions at sea on various ships as well as in joint and international HQs, including 7 years in NATO in England and Italy. He is an alumnus from the Cranfield (UK) and Paris VI (France) universities, from which he has respectively graduated with an MSc in “Resilience” and a degree in Biophysics.

Mr Kris CHRISTMANN
University of Huddersfield, Applied Criminology Centre (ACC), UK

Findings from the PRE-EMPT Project: Establishing Best Practice for Reducing Serious Crime and Terrorism at Multi-Modal Passenger Terminals (MMPT)


Crowded places such as large land-based transport hubs (multi-modal passenger terminals: MMPTs) are attractive sites for terrorist attack. MMPTs also present acute security challenges due to their complexity. They bring together different forms of transport (often above and below ground) different land uses (shopping and leisure as well as transportation) and different jurisdictional control (multiple owners) whilst at the same time needing to ensure the free flow of large transitory populations. I report on findings from a recent EU project called PRE-EMPT (’Process Review and Evaluation of Multi-Modal Passenger Terminals Resilience for Counter Terrorism’) which was aimed at establishing ’best practice’ in preventing terrorist attacks and serious crime for MMPTs. The study draws on our findings from a comprehensive search of published literature, experience-based knowledge gained from MMPT site visits, and the development of a Conceptual Attack Framework (CAF) which draws on theories from the fields of Crime Prevention and Counterterrorism to identify ’theoretically plausible’ attack opportunities. We derived 8 general principles in providing the steps that would need to be achieved to establish a baseline level of security for MMPTs across the EU and to make MMPTs safer.

Kris Christmann is an applied criminologist and Research Fellow at the Applied Criminology Centre (ACC) at the University of Huddersfield. His main research interests include the study of terrorism; radicalisation; and hate crime (for clients such as the: Youth Justice Board, Office for Security and Counter Terrorism, the Home Office, and the European Union’s Fundamental Rights Agency). This work includes how to improve reporting measures and interventions to prevent and control violent extremism and terrorism. Kris and ACC colleagues have recently completed research in counter terrorism for the EU (DG Move - Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport) examining how to protect large, multi-modal transport hubs across Europe from terrorist attack as well as from serious crime. The suite of reports delivered are currently being studied by commissioners and it is anticipated that some of this material will be published in the near future.

Dr Paul THERON
Thales Communications & Security, France

A way towards a fully bridged European certification of IACS cybersecurity



This presentation relates the work of DG JRC’s ERNCIP Thematic Group on IACS cybersecurity certification. First we present the history of the TG, its goals and its methodology. The 2014 first phase of its activity led to a report that established a 2015-2020 plan of action to help IACS cybersecurity certification progress in Europe. We mainly present the principles and levels of the European Compliance & Certification Scheme advocated by the TG. We also provide details about the 7 projects for the 2015-2020 period and we propose a review of its progress to date.

Paul Théron, PhD, FBCI, is Thales Communications & Security’s cyber-defence bids manager (export) and expert on cyber resilience. He is co-head of the Aerospatial Cyber Resilience research chair. Former member of ENISA’s Permanent Stakeholders Group, he also leads DG JRC’s European Thematic Group on the “Certification of the cybersecurity of Industrial Automation & Control Systems”. His work in cybersecurity includes cyber intelligence, C2 systems, cyber-attack strategies, awareness raising, the cyber resilience of massively collaborative systems such as the future European ATM system, and European studies of the resilience of telecommunications.