Cybersecurity starts with communities: NCSCC holds summit and hackathon

The National Cybersecurity Coordination Center at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine held a summit entitled “Cyber Resilience of Communities: Strategies and Innovations” and a practical hackathon dedicated to strengthening digital security at the regional level.

The event was organized jointly with the Association of Small Cities of Ukraine and the Institute for Cyber Warfare Research, with support from CRDF Global and Global Affairs Canada. The summit brought together representatives of state and local authorities, cybersecurity experts, international partners, businesses, and the academic community.

Participants discussed the current cyber threat landscape, key trends in cybersecurity in 2025, and the concept of creating and sustainably operating a Cybersecurity Dispatch Center – the first municipal Gromada-ISAC in Ukraine. Special attention was paid to public-private partnerships, opportunities for attracting funding, and practical solutions for improving the cyber resilience of local communities.

Opening the event, Natalia Tkachuk, Head of the Department of Information Security and Cyber Defense of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Secretary of the NCSCC, emphasized the strategic importance of regional cyber defense:

"Today, communities are increasingly becoming targets of cyberattacks. The formation of common approaches, the exchange of information, and the development of regional mechanisms for interaction are critically necessary to protect digital services and citizens' data."

The practical component of the summit was a hackathon, during which teams worked on applied solutions to increase the cyber resilience of communities and implement information exchange tools. Based on the results of their work, the participants presented their projects, after which the results were summarized and awards were presented.

The summit and hackathon were another step in developing systematic cooperation between the state, communities, and international partners. The NCSCC is consistently building regional cyber resilience as part of national security and implementing modern approaches to protecting digital infrastructure at the local level.