The World Institute for Nuclear Security (WINS) and the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to further strengthen their cooperation in the field of global digital security.
The agreement, signed on the second conference day of the International Digital Security Forum in Vienna, aims to meet the challenges of an increasingly digitised and security-critical world through increased international cooperation – with a particular focus on education, capacity building and technological development in the areas of cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, countering disinformation and the responsible use of new digital technologies in the security-relevant environment.
Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure Operators
The MoU will form the basis for closer cooperation to strengthen digital resilience for both energy production and energy distribution grid infrastructures. The focus is on the joint development of practice-oriented training and awareness programs that provide operators of critical infrastructures with specific skills in dealing with current and future cyber threats. Targeted training formats and the use of modern technologies – particularly in the field of artificial intelligence – are intended to identify risks at an early stage and strengthen cross-sector security standards in the long term.
“WINS values its partnership with AIT, which has been only growing stronger since its start in 2018, and our shared objective to support WINS’ global community of practitioners to mitigate the increasing risks from cyber threats. We look forward to our enhanced cooperation in this important field so that the response to the cyberthreats is effective and sustained,” said Lars van Dassen, Executive Director of WINS.
Helmut Leopold, Head of Center for Digital Safety & Security, signed on behalf of AIT at the ceremony. “A sustainable design of technology can only be achieved through an intensive dialogue between technology developers, policymakers, authorities and technology users in a global context, as part of an ongoing ‘technology shaping process’. Technology must serve people, ensuring that we do not become victims of poorly designed technology. Newly established global collaborations are an important contribution to the positive digital transformation of our society,” he said.
Lars also discussed the social, regulatory and technical challenges in the area of tension between innovation and nuclear security in the IDSF session “Digital Transformation and the Security Impact on Nuclear Ecosystems and Non-Proliferation” moderated by Donald Dudenhoeffer (Cyber Security Expert, AIT) together with Elena K. Sokova (Executive Director, VCDNP), Paul Smith (Professor at the School of Computing and Communications, Lancaster University, UK), Ulrik Ahnfeldt-Mollerup (Head of Section at the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism, UNOCT) and Rodney Busquim (Head of the Information Management Section, Division of Nuclear Security, Department of Nuclear, Safety and Security, International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA).
