"International Conference on Cyber Engagement engages the largest international audience and attracts the world’s top thinkers on current and emerging digital security and technology issues. If you are working in the international space, this is a must-attend conference."
Melissa Hathaway, former Cybersecurity Advisor for President Barack Obama and President George W. Bush
In 2011, Dr. Catherine Lotrionte organized the inaugural International Conference on Cyber Engagement (ICCE) at Georgetown University. By 2011, it was clear that rapid advances in technology had been outpacing developments in law and policy. This was leading to an increasingly more fragile cyberspace, and the international approach to addressing the threats was still underdeveloped. In convening this first-of-its-kind gathering of key stakeholders from around the globe, the objective was to rally the international community to confront the toughest problems in cyberspace in a truly cooperative manner.
In his keynote speech at the inaugural event, General Brent Scowcroft laid out the goals of the ICCE: “to gather stakeholders to further cooperation at an international scale and invest in partnerships between public institutions, private industry, and a mix of the two” as well as civil society and academia. For over nine years, the ICCE has worked towards doing just that: bringing together over 5000 people at the annual international conferences, including over 90 different countries’ representatives, facilitating numerous workshops for governments and private sector participants, and sponsoring research and scholarship.
Since 2011, our dependence on cyberspace has only grown exponentially to encompass our political, economic, and social wellbeing. So too have the threats we all face in this space, from cybercrime and intellectual property theft to election interference and cyber conflict. Just as these threats transcend nations and their borders, so do the necessary solutions. In recognition of these facts, and in an effort to ensure the continued work of the ICCE, Dr. Lotrionte established the Institute for International Cyber Stability, a non-profit that brings people together to discuss and develop global security standards, policies, laws, and practices.
"I started this conference out of a conviction that a true multidisciplinary approach and international engagement are the only way that the cyber community can begin to address the many complex challenges stemming from our interconnectivity."
– Dr. Catherine Lotrionte, 2019 ICCE
Dr. Catherine Lotrionte
Brent Scowcroft Scholar, Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, Atlantic Council
Dr. Catherine Lotrionte is the founder of the International Conference on Cyber Engagement. She is also a Brent Scowcroft scholar at the Atlantic Council with the Cyber Statecraft Initiative in the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. She is the founder and former director of the CyberProject at Georgetown University, where she has taught and written on international and national security law, international affairs, and technology. At Georgetown, she founded the CyberProject in 2008, focusing on the role of international and domestic law in recent and emerging developments in the proliferation of weapons, technology, and threats. Lotrionte previously served as counsel to the president's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board at the White House, on the Joint Inquiry Committee of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, as an assistant general counsel at the Central Intelligence Agency and in the US Department of Justice.
She is an internationally recognized expert on international law and cyber conflict and has testified before Congress and NATO on cyber issues. She has authored numerous publications on a broad array of topics, including espionage, information technology, international law, and deterrence and is a frequent speaker at cyber conferences across the globe.
Dr. Lotrionte holds an MA and PhD from Georgetown University and a JD from New York University. She served on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Cybersecurity, the Center for Strategic and International Studies Cyber Policy Task Force, the CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force on Defending an Open, Global, Secure, and Resilient Internet, and the CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force on US Policy Toward North Korea. She is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Allison Riepenhoff Ratajczak founded Newsworthy Productions, a full service events and communications firm, in 2009. Prior to that, she served as Executive Director of Protocol and Events for Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. where she oversaw Georgetown’s signature events. She has twenty years of event production experience, including at The White House and the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
DEDICATED MEDIA PARTNERS
Suzanne Kelly is CEO and Publisher of The Cipher Brief, a national security-focused website providing expert analysis and insights on national and global security issues. Kelly is also the founder of The Cyber Initiatives Group, a public-private partnership that produces cyber-focused briefings throughout the year. Kelly is a former CNN Intelligence Correspondent and the author of Master of War: Blackwater USA's Erik Prince and the Business of War.
Brad Christian is COO of The Cipher Brief and Executive Director of The Cyber Initiatives Group. Prior to joining TCB, he spent over a decade in the private sector with executive-level experience in operations management, training and business development. Before that, he served in numerous overseas posts providing critical support to USG operations as a member of an elite protective unit. Christian served 10 years in the US Military, including service with the Rangers and Special Forces.