Cyber Conflicts - Real and Virtual: By Nicola Bates, Sofia Liemann Escobar, Neil Ashdown & James Barr

> … Loading, 30 seconds until player two enters the game

I appear to be in some sort of train carriage. I look down. My shoes have morphed into some rather fetching cowboy boots, my hands are clad in leather gauntlet-style gloves.

> … 15 seconds until player two enters the game

Furiously I attempt to discern how to move, hesitantly waddling forward, wary of my unfamiliar surroundings.

> … 5 seconds until player two enters the game

I turn to face the door of the carriage.

> … Start game

The door violently swings open and I am met with a veritable blizzard. The scene clears. I am under a moonlit sky. I am on a moving train.

Up ahead there is movement. This must be my opponent – the much-vaunted player two. I look down to my hand. I am holding a pistol, a shiny silver pistol. I lift my hand and take aim, expecting a flurry of fire to down my adversary.

But my shiny silver sidearm does not flurry. Instead, what can only be described as a slow moving, fluorescent blue orb emerges from its tip, gently meandering toward my aggressor. I pause, pondering the orb.

I snap back, hastening to cover, diving behind an adjacent barrel. Gingerly peaking around its circumference, I take aim. More stately orbs wobble away. But to no avail.

I step out to glean a better view. A bluish mass approaches. I shuffle in vain. My waddle cannot save me. The blue mass is here and there is no way out. I am down.

Game over.

I raise my now sweat-soaked goggles.

Looking around I see a series of senior NATO staff flying through imaginary hoops, soaring on some sort of Green Goblin-esque glider. In my peripheral, I catch sight of another official cycling over a virtual town somewhat reminiscent of Durham meets Cloud City, attempting to capture a series of red spheroids floating in the digital ether.

I stop to wonder … is this cyber war?

No. This is the closing night of CyCon 2022 and we are in the midst of a NATO-funded VR playground, packed with all sorts of improbable immersive experiences. After several years of virtual academic existence, we were exceedingly excited to attend a real event. All the more surprising, then, to travel across Europe to visit virtual worlds!

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For most of us, this was our first venture into the realms of the international conference scene. We had all attended the virtual CyCon a year prior, an almost Eurovision-like affair, full of glitz and glamour, albeit with a healthy dose of camouflage and three-star generals.

For those who may not be as familiar with the event, CyCon – or to give its full name, the International Conference on Cyber Conflict – is an annual conference held in Tallinn and hosted by NATO’s CCDCOE. Through keynotes, panels, and workshops, participants can learn about the latest issues concerning the cyber defence and cyber security community.

It is also a conference that embraces and recognises the importance of a multidisciplinary approach. As such, you can expect to find talks that bring technical, legal, military, strategic or policy-oriented perspectives. Primed by a stimulating and thought-provoking virtual attendance the year prior, we could not wait to experience the real deal in Estonia.

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The Royal Holloway contingent was privileged to participate in the day of workshops that preceded the formal start of the conference. Our group supported two workshops – one being run by a member of the CDT, Amy Ertan, and the other by an incoming member of the Information Security Group, Andrew Dwyer. As this suggests, there was a strong Royal Holloway representation throughout the event, a fact which is testament to the work done by people like Amy and Andrew, along with others like Nick Robinson, in blazing the trail to Tallinn.

The workshops were a great introduction to the conference. Our group acted as discussants and scribes, allowing us to observe the discussions at these workshops, and providing a chance to meet the participants. The experience is completely different to watching an event passively on Zoom, or even to acting as a scribe for a virtual event. Nothing can replace the opportunities that arise for networking and informal discussions when it comes time for a coffee break.

The rest of the conference was made up of various talks, panels, and presentations, comprising a vast number of fields and a plethora of industry experts, academic researchers, government officials, and military personnel. From technical topics, through to the legal minutiae, and broader social implications, the 'Keep Moving!' theme was thoroughly and methodically dissected; a rich and truly interdisciplinary experience.

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After a long day in the conference hall, the CCDCOE organised an evening walking tour around Tallinn. The bright weather was an added bonus given that the tour guide told us of usually grey skies – Estonians say that there is no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong equipment. The nearly two hours of insights included a complicated history of occupations by Germany and Russia, brought to life through tour guide stories and local buildings. The Hotel Viru for example is described as being built of 50% microphones and 50% concrete, having been used by the KGB for spying and blackmail operations. Quainter insights included finding out that Tallinn has Europe’s oldest pharmacies (still in use), meeting the city’s most famous celebrity Steven Seagull, and learning about local food and crafts, such as marzipan, cabbage, juniper wood and butter knives (hopefully Jamie’s mum will appreciate his efforts to source the latter).

One thing we did not see on the tour was the Bronze Soldier, the monument that explains why CyCon is held in Tallinn each year. In April 2007, a decision to relocate this Soviet-era monument led to cyberattacks on government institutions and unrest in Tallinn. This event highlighted the potential vulnerability of NATO countries to disruption of ICT systems and was a major reason for establishing the NATO CCDCOE in 2008. Estonia is definitely a country on the frontline of geopolitical tensions.

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Those tensions were never far from our minds. You can only spend so much time in virtual worlds before you come down to earth. After our return flight landed in Heathrow, we learned that the Estonian government had collapsed while we were in the air. The cause: differences over how to handle relations with Moscow.

We had a great time in Tallinn and learned a lot. But we did so at a time when people were fighting and dying against an invading army, in a war of choice started by an authoritarian regime. ‘Cyber’ is part of that war, and the study of ‘cyber conflict’ is not an idle, philosophic pursuit. It is real. It was happening to real people, even as we were enjoying NATO’s hospitality in a trendy warehouse gallery and bar in Tallinn. On the last evening of CyCon, the outgoing director of the CCDCOE asked the whole conference to raise a toast to Ukraine. We did.

The line-up for CyCon 22 was decided before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. Next year’s event is likely to focus even more heavily on that conflict, or – perhaps optimistically – on its aftermath. Appropriately, the theme for next year’s CyCon will be ‘Meeting Reality’. We look forward to it.