Three day training on 'Government, Security, and Conflict in the Cyber Age'
On May 28-30, the Cyber Studies Programme conducted a three-day training session for Estonian university students in Tallinn, Estonia. The theme of the course was “Government, Security, and Conflict in the Cyber Age.” The event, which targeted students working in non-technical fields, was the first in a series of Oxford Training Sessions on the Modern Information Society funded by the European Social Fund and the Estonian Government.
The training session consisted of classroom lectures and a cyber crisis simulation exercise replicating the challenges of decisionmaking under conditions of uncertainty. The Oxford teaching staff consisted of Dr Lucas Kello, Senior Lecturer in International Relations and Programme Director, who serves as the course's Faculty Chair; Professor Andrew Martin, Director of the Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber Security; and Florian Egloff, Clarendon Scholar and DPhil candidate in Cyber Security.
Participants rated the course very highly. Following is a selection of student comments:
On the course generally:
“The presentations were remarkably high-class when it comes to quality”
"Haven't had any experience about cyber security or such an interest in politics...So, this course really was very interesting and gave me a lot of new information, thank you!"
"I am very pleased and thankful for all the lectures. Well-structured, understandable and broadened my views a lot"
“As a lawyer, I found the interdisciplinary approach very useful and would definitely recommend to continue with the approach as well as with training sessions in general, since there have not been any similar cyber-related events organised in the past”
"Interesting course, bravo!"
On the simulation exercise:
"Something very new and exciting to me"
"I have never experienced something so practical before, very well organized"
"I have never had this kind of exercise, but I sure hope I will [again] in future"
"Questions that were asked [were] amazing, they were related to events that were happening. I loved it"
“The simulation was also a fun experience, which illustrated perfectly the complexity of the problems at hand”
