Events

The Western Balkans Cyber Capacity Centre has attracted growing attention from senior European officials, government delegations, defence representatives and international media during a particularly active period of diplomatic engagement in Montenegro. Several visits took place on the margins of the Berlin Process, reflecting the increasing importance of cybersecurity and institutional resilience within the wider European security and integration agenda.

As cyberattacks become more sophisticated and increasingly target essential services, public institutions and critical infrastructure, the ability of Western Balkan countries to prevent, withstand and respond to cyber incidents has become a matter of strategic importance. These challenges extend beyond national borders and require closer regional cooperation, stronger institutions and sustained investment in specialised skills.

For countries pursuing EU membership, cybersecurity is also an important dimension of alignment with European legislation, standards and security frameworks. Building the capacities required to implement the NIS2 Directive, the Critical Entities Resilience Directive and other relevant EU requirements is essential for the region's integration into Europe's common security and digital environment.

High-level visits during the Berlin Process

On 16 September, WB3C welcomed Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, French Minister Delegate, during her visit to Montenegro on the margins of the Berlin Process. The visit provided an opportunity to present the Centre's regional mandate and its contribution to strengthening cybersecurity, combating cybercrime and supporting cyberdiplomacy across the Western Balkans.

On 25 September, the Centre received representatives of EU Member States, providing further opportunities to present its work and discuss the contribution of international cooperation to regional cyber resilience.

A further high-level visit followed on 2 October, when the Foreign Ministers of Austria, Czechia and Slovakia visited WB3C. The engagement placed the Centre's work within the broader context of European security, regional stability and the Western Balkans' EU perspective.

These visits offered opportunities to demonstrate how the Centre translates international cooperation into practical support for Western Balkan institutions, bringing together European expertise, regional priorities and targeted professional training.

European media engagement

On 13 October, WB3C welcomed a delegation of European media representatives in cooperation with the European Commission's Directorate-General for Enlargement and Eastern Neighbourhood (DG ENEST) and the EU Delegation to Montenegro.

The visit focused on the Centre's role in strengthening regional cyber resilience and addressing emerging security challenges, including hybrid threats, foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI), and disinformation.

Discussions highlighted the links between cybersecurity, institutional resilience and democratic stability, particularly in an environment where information manipulation, cybercrime and cyberattacks can undermine public trust and the functioning of essential services.

Regional defence and security cooperation

The Centre's international engagement also extends to the defence and security community.

On 28 October, WB3C is scheduled to welcome delegations participating in the Framework Nations Concept cooperation initiative led by Italy (FNC-ITA), in cooperation with Montenegro's Ministry of Defence. The visit will bring together representatives of participating NATO member and partner countries from South-East Europe, providing an opportunity to exchange perspectives on cyber resilience and regional security cooperation.

During this period, WB3C representatives were invited to Zagreb to meet with RACVIAC – Centre for Security Cooperation, a regional intergovernmental organisation dedicated to strengthening security dialogue, institutional capacities and cooperation in South-East Europe, including in cybersecurity and countering transnational threats, to explore opportunities for closer cooperation in addressing shared regional security challenges.

This engagement reflects the importance of cybersecurity across civilian and defence sectors, where the protection of critical infrastructure, continuity of essential services and effective institutional coordination are closely interconnected.

Building resilience is a strategic investment in the region's European future. Through its training programmes, institutional partnerships and regional cooperation mechanisms, WB3C will continue to contribute to a more secure and resilient Western Balkans, strengthening both regional stability and Europe's collective cyber resilience.

Today, WB3C started a four-day technical training programme on Infrastructure and Cloud Security aimed at cybersecurity professionals from the region.

As public institutions and critical infrastructure operators increasingly rely on interconnected networks and cloud-based services, securing these environments has become essential to maintaining the continuity and reliability of vital services. This requires not only appropriate security policies and technical safeguards, but also professionals capable of identifying vulnerabilities, preventing intrusions and responding effectively when incidents occur.

Today, we have security administrators, SOC analysts, critical infrastructure IT specialists and public sector network engineers in the classroom led by Ljuban Petrovic, Cybersecurity Manager at Siemens, MSc|CISSP|GCIH|GPEN|GRID|CFCE|CCO|CCPA.

The training follows an intensive, hands-on approach, allowing participants to work in simulated network and cloud environments. Over four days, they will address secure systems administration, network and infrastructure protection, vulnerability assessment and penetration testing, cloud security and incident response.

Particular emphasis is placed on practical exercises in which participants identify security weaknesses, implement protective measures and respond to simulated cyberattacks. Working both individually and in teams, they will apply techniques and tools directly relevant to their responsibilities within their home institutions.

By combining technical skills development with opportunities for professional exchange, WB3C continues to support stronger operational capabilities and closer cooperation among cybersecurity practitioners across the region.

Today, WB3C welcomed representatives of national cybersecurity authorities from the region for a four-day programme on NIS2 Strategic Leadership and Cyber Risk Management, organised in partnership with the The World Bank and with the involvement of the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA).

The programme addresses a central challenge facing the region: how to translate the requirements of the EU's NIS2 Directive into effective national cybersecurity governance, particularly when it comes to protecting critical infrastructure and essential services.

Welcoming the participants, our Programme Director Gilles Schwoerer highlighted the importance of strengthening institutional capacities and regional cooperation in responding to increasingly complex cyber threats.

Ghislain de  Salins (WB) and Tom Lenters (ENISA) contributed to bringing together the programme, combining expertise in institutional governance, cybersecurity risk management and European regulatory practices.

Over the next four days, participants will examine national cybersecurity frameworks, risk-based supervision, incident reporting and crisis management. Practical workshops and a strategic tabletop exercise will provide opportunities to apply these concepts to realistic scenarios, including cyber incidents with cross-border implications.

For the Western Balkans, alignment with NIS2 is both an important element of the EU accession process and an opportunity to strengthen national resilience. With essential services and infrastructure increasingly interconnected, effective cybersecurity governance also depends on cooperation across borders. 

The training is led by Konstantinos Moulinos, ENISA expert, Ilmar Toom of the Riigi Infosüsteemi Amet // Estonian Information System Authority (NCSC-EE) and Mladen Bukilic, CISO and SOC Manager of Čikom.

The programme forms part of the ongoing cooperation between WB3C and the World Bank, launched in May 2026, to support cybersecurity leadership and institutional capacity development across the region.

The eighth Western Balkans Digital Summit took place on 13 and 14 October, organised by Montenegro’s Ministry of Public Administration with the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) and the European Union. It was part of Montenegro’s 2026 chairmanship of the #BerlinProcess, and the Leaders’ Summit follows on 22 October. More than 150 people from the region’s governments, EU institutions, industry and civil society attended.
Our Programme Director, Gilles Schwoerer, moderated the panel on “Cybersecurity & Building a Secure Digital Environment”. He led a discussion with people who deal with these issues every day:
 ◽ Samir Orahovac, former Acting Director, Agencija za sajber bezbjednost Crne Gore / Cybersecurity Agency of Montenegro
◽Denisa Kurtagic, Programme Manager Cybersecurity, DCAF - Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance
◽Dusan Banovicć, Director, Service Development & Digital Transformation, Crnogorski Telekom
◽Vojtěch H. (Hons), EU Delegation, Sarajevo
 ◽Mladen Bukilic Bukilić, CISO/SOC Manager, Čikom

Having a regulator, a telecom operator, a SOC team, a donor and an EU delegation at one table is useful, because each of them sees a different part of the same weak spot. Digital identity, e-services and AI all rely on networks and institutions that can withstand an attack. 

The summit closed with a clear list of priorities for the region: mutual recognition of digital identities, digital identity wallets, more affordable roaming with the EU, improved connectivity and stronger cybersecurity cooperation. RCC Secretary General Amer Kapetanović said the task ahead is to connect the six economies, not only to digitalise them. It was a privilege for WB3C to moderate the cybersecurity discussion, and we look forward to the work that follows.

This week, we had the pleasure of welcoming a delegation of around 15 journalists from across the EU who came to Montenegro to better understand the hybrid threats the country is facing. The visit was supported by DG ENEST.
The group brought together reporters, editors and camera crews from L’Opinion and Le Nouvel Obs (France), Rai (Italy), Deutsche Welle (Germany), Deník N and TV Nova (Czechia), Kurier and Profil (Austria), and De Telegraaf (the Netherlands).
The programme included perspectives from two of Montenegro’s leading civil society voices invited by the EU Delegation in Montenegro, Zlatko Vujovic (CEMI) and Milica Kovačević (CDT), who shared their insights on how hybrid threats show up on the ground and what they mean for Montenegrin European perspective and upcoming general elections in 2027. 
On behalf of Western Balkans Cyber Capacity Centre (WB3C), Vanja Madzgalj MBE had the opportunity to show the journalists our facility and talk about our work, including our efforts on FIMI and disinformation. These are topics where good journalism and good cooperation matter a great deal. Our trainers for cybercrime Cyril CORRIAS and Jean-Pierre Bonnet (JP BNT) stirred particular interest in the work we do to support law enforcement and the judiciary in their fight against financial and crypto frauds, digital forensics, online and anti-drug investigations, cross-border trafficking, human smuggling, online sexual exploitation and much more. 

Thank you to our colleagues from DG ENEST, Jerneja Starič and Christina Moldt, and to Zeljka Lekic-Subasic from Ecorys for the smooth organisation. And thank you to all the journalists for your time, curiosity and the important work you do.
Hybrid threats don’t stop at borders, and neither should our conversations about them.

From 12 to 14 October, WB3C is in Herceg Novi with the Regional School of Public Administration (ReSPA) for an advanced Training of Trainers on Cyber Resilience and Data Protection. In the room are public administration professionals from across the Western Balkans, plus colleagues from Armenia, Moldova and Ukraine. The training runs alongside the Western Balkans Digital Summit, and participants are taking part in both.

Today, governments run more and more of their services on connected systems and data. When those systems fail, or when data is mishandled, citizens lose trust. Technology alone doesn’t solve the risks. You need people who know what to do, institutions that have thought it through in advance, and neighbours who share what they learn. That’s the thinking behind the three days.

✅ Day 1 is about preparedness: current cyber threats, governance, cyber hygiene, incident prevention and response, business continuity and crisis management, and the legal basis for data protection in the public sector.

✅ Day 2 gets practical on data protection. We’re working through GDPR principles, Records of Processing Activities, Data Protection Impact Assessments, transparency obligations and the rights of data subjects.

✅ Day 3 looks ahead: artificial intelligence, information sharing, cooperation between institutions, and how to train others well. Each participant leaves with an institutional action plan and a realistic way to pass this knowledge on at home.
Our experts Arianit Maraj and Stella Manga Chesnay are leading the sessions, drawing on their work in cybersecurity governance, institutional resilience and data protection.
The “training of trainers” format is deliberate. What happens in this room only counts if it travels, so we’re asking every participant to take it back to their own administration and share it with colleagues. The week is also a chance for Western Balkans and Eastern Partnership colleagues to compare notes on shared problems and find ways to keep working together.
Our Programme Director, Gilles Schwoerer, put it simply: “Cyber resilience is about more than technology. It requires skilled people, prepared institutions and strong regional cooperation.”
Thank you to our partners at ReSPA, and to Bojana Bajić for opening the event, and to everyone taking part this week.
 

The WB3C Programme Director participated in the conference organised by RACVIAC in Zagreb, entitled “Strengthening SEE Resilience in Cyber Security Against Hybrid Threats.” 
The mission provided an opportunity to present the Centre’s activities and discuss several potential areas of cybersecurity cooperation.

The areas under consideration include strengthening the cyber resilience of critical entities in the Western Balkans through NIS2 training and technical training aimed at addressing the skills gap in operational technology security, with priority given to young civilian and military talent. 

They also include training on artificial intelligence and the implications of the European Union’s AI Act, the development of new cybersecurity curricula with universities and military academies in the region, and the possibility of providing cybersecurity training to military units in cooperation with RACVIAC.

This week, WB3C hosted an Advanced Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) training in Podgorica, delivered by Ljuban Petrovic for SOC, CSIRT, CERT and IT professionals from critical entities across the Western Balkans. 
Building on the foundational CTI course delivered earlier this year, the four-day programme goes further into advanced threat hunting, Threat Intelligence Platforms and automation, threat actor profiling and attribution, the MITRE ATT&CK framework, strategic reporting and hands-on work with MISP. 
The aim is to help practitioners move from collecting technical threat data to producing actionable intelligence that supports detection, incident response and decision-making, while strengthening information sharing between national and regional CERT/CSIRT structures.
We are especially pleased to see more women then men in this training, which encourages us that our region is slowly breaking cultural barriers and biases.

We were much honoured to host today at WB3C the Foreign Ministers of Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia, together with their delegations, following the Berlin Process Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Montenegro.
Beate Meinl-Reisinger, Federal Minister for European and International Affairs of Austria, Petr Macinka, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and Juraj Blanár, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Slovakia were welcomed by Naim M. GJOKAJ, on behalf of the Government of Montenegro as one of WB3C’s founding partners, and Gilles Schwoerer, WB3C Programme Director. The visit was also attended by Minsiter Marash Dukaj and resident ambassadors of Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic in Montenegro.

Their visit gave us an important opportunity to show, first-hand, what WB3C has become and where it is heading.
After a tour of our facilities, we presented the Centre’s mission and work across cybersecurity, cybercrime, cyber diplomacy and hybrid threats, as well as the partnerships that make this regional model possible. Particular attention was given to our cooperation with the European Union, including the EU-supported regional programme, and to the growing network of European and international institutions contributing expertise to our activities.
What matters most is the purpose behind this work.
WB3C was created to give the Western Balkans a permanent facility where countries can build capability together: strengthening public institutions and critical entities, supporting law enforcement and the judiciary, developing the skills of the existing workforce and investing in the next generation through cooperation with universities.

Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are closely engaged in the European integration of the Western Balkans, while the Berlin Process continues to place regional cooperation, security and the region’s European future at the centre of the agenda.
For WB3C, the longer-term direction is equally clear: a Centre increasingly shaped, supported and governed by the Western Balkans themselves, firmly connected to European institutions, standards and expertise.
We greatly appreciated the ministers’ interest in our work and the opportunity to present the role WB3C can play in making regional cooperation in cyber security practical, lasting and genuinely owned by the region.