A very productive meeting this morning with the Atlantic Council of Montenegro, led by Mr. Savo Kentera, President and CEO, together with his team Azra Karastanović and Draško Jabučanin. The Western Balkans Cyber Capacity Centre (WB3C) was represented by its Head Gilles Schwoerer and the team: Vanja Madzgalj MBE, Cyril C. and Yannick Casse. 

Building on our previous engagements, including the national Round Table on Critical Infrastructure and the 2BS Forum, WB3C is further strengthening this collaboration to address pressing regional challenges.

Our discussions highlighted significant common interests in two crucial areas: critical infrastructure resilience and countering disinformation and foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI).

This prospective partnership reflects a shared commitment to strengthening regional security and societal resilience against interference and information manipulation. We look forward to developing concrete actions and contributing meaningfully to these important efforts.

Today we start a short CyberHygiene training for colleagues at Montenegro’s Ministry of European Affairs. The training is led by WB3C-s in-house trainers Cyril C. and Yannick Casse.
Over the two days, we will work through the threats civil servants face most often — phishing, malware/ransomware and social engineering — and the practical habits that reduce risk without needing to advance technical skills such as: safer daily practices, data confidentiality and clear incident response basics.
A reminder worth repeating: cyber hygiene is organizational hygiene. Firewalls and policies help, but day-to-day resilience is built in small decisions made across the institution. Every civil servant counts.
A simple checklist that pays off:
⚠️ Pause before you click (especially “urgent” emails)
⚠️ Use strong passwords/passphrases + multi-factor authentication where available
⚠️ Keep devices and apps updated
⚠️ Report suspicious activity early—speed matters

Director Gilles Schwoerer greeted the participants by emphasizing that cybersecurity culture doesn’t start in the IT department, but it starts in each inbox. We are very pleased to welcome the behind-the-scenes force driving Montenegro's successful advancement towards the EU accession and to share that WB3C is expecting its first multi-year EU grant in March this year, aimed at supporting the region in meeting the requirements from the cyber agenda and strengthening its overall resilience, especially its critical infrastructure. We look forward to joining forces with ministries around the region in 2026 - a year expected to bring a dynamic plan of activities.

After the extended Christmas and New Year holidays, WB3C is back in track, using this quieter month to finalize our end-of-year reports, complete our dynamic 2026 work plan and upgrade our IT system ahead of the exciting activities we have coming up.
A big part of this “behind-the-scenes” work is strengthening our training environment. 
A sneak peak into this summer: we’re preparing to host the first Forum InCyber Balkans (FIC Balkans) during which we will organize a Capture the Flag (CTF) challenge. FIC Balkans is a new event we are launching with Forum INCYBER (FIC) France, the Association of Security Managers of Montenegro and the Naučno-tehnološki park Crne Gore / Science Technology Park of Montenegro, bringing cyber businesses and institutions together for a cyber fair—and creating space for practical engagement, learning, and a bit of fun for our beneficiary countries.

In the photo, our team with colleague Samy SCANNA, member of the Gendarmerie Nationale reserve, who came to help with setting up the system.

Stay tuned for updates as we have a full year of news and activities ahead.