Lodz Cyber Hub Director spoke at the 18th International Conference on Cyber Conflict (CyCon 2026), hosted by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE) in Tallinn, Estonia, on 26–29 May 2026.
Dr Kulesza contributed to the panel "Stability Under Strain: Legal Response in a Contested Cyberspace" on 28 May 2026, 16:00–17:30, moderated by Dr Rene Vark of the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Fellow panellists were Ms Jimena Viveros (IQuilibriumAI), Ms Karen De Vos (KU Leuven and the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies), and Mr Robert Young (Global Affairs Canada).
The panel examined how international law responds when cyber operations implicate interests that transcend bilateral disputes — from disruptions to hospitals, elections, financial systems, and undersea cables to the broader architecture of shared digital stability. It addresses state responsibility in cyberspace, including attribution, due diligence, and the legal consequences of internationally wrongful acts, with particular focus on lawful responses below the threshold of force: countermeasures, coordinated and collective countermeasures, sanctions, cyber defensive actions, and diplomatic and economic pressure. A central question concerned the legal limits of solidarity in responding to malicious cyber activity — whether multiple states can act together to uphold shared digital stability without escalating conflict.
This year's conference theme was "Securing Tomorrow." CyCon is the leading annual forum for multidisciplinary scholarship on cyber conflict, bringing together legal scholars, technologists, military practitioners, and policymakers from NATO member and partner states. Sessions are recorded and published on the NATO CCDCOE YouTube channel.
Further information about CyCon 2026: www.ccdcoe.org/cycon/
