Dr. Geir Olav Dyrkholbotn will give a talk on Cyber Operation on December 8th at 12:00 in room M105. Dr. Dyrkholbotn is an officer in the Norwegian Armed Forces and an associate professor at Center for Cyber and Information Security (CCIS) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). 

The Norwegian Armed Forces describes cyber operations as: "...military or strategic actions taking place in or through the cyber domain to secure one's freedom of action and to impact the enemy in order to achieve military or strategic objectives” Information security focuses on protecting our information and technology, however trends show that information security comes short in defending missions against dedicated adversaries operating in cyber space. NATO has as a consequently acknowledged cyber space as a new warfare domain. This presentation will, from a small state perspective, describe three types of missions in defensive cyber operations: shaping, protecting, and defending. Various tactics within each mission will be exemplified. It is based on the concept of defensive cyber operations, issued by the Norwegian Armed Forces Cyber Defense on July 1, 2022. The concept is grounded in the military theoretical development and more than 20 years of practical experience in executing military cyber operations. The talk will introduce the concept of cyber operation and related topics, based on the speaker’s more than 20 years of experience in the field.

Dr. Dyrkholbotn is currently head of the NTNU Malware Lab and the research group for cyber defence at CCIS. Geir Olav holds a PhD in information security from Gjøvik University College (HiG) and a MSc in computer science from the NTNU. His career includes more than 25 years in the Norwegian Armed Forces, where he holds the rank of Major. His career has focused on training and education of both military and civilian personnel on topics such as operation, maintenance and security in tactical communication systems, information security, transmission security, reverse engineering and malware analysis, defensive cyber operations, computer network defense and operational security. His research interest include cyber defense, reverse engineering and malware analysis, side-channel attacks and machine learning.