Conference Matters 144

CYBERSECURITY FOR THE NATO SUMMIT 2025

The NATO Summit 2025 will be held at the World Forum in The Hague on 24 and 25 June. In addi tion to the strict security of government leaders and other dignitaries, the conference centre also boasts high-quality security for its digital infra structure. World Forum The Hague is the world’s first congress centre to install Trulifi by Signify, a technology that provides a secure, reliable, and high-speed wireless connection using light instead of radio waves. The venue’s network remains strictly confined to physical space, pre venting unauthorised users from accessing the network from outside. Trulifi provides additional security thanks to custom encryption and speci fic access keys. In addition, the venue has a highly secure Wi-Fi network that is continuously being adapted and monitored to comply with the latest security standards and to protect customers from poten tial data breaches and cyber attacks. Event Risk Profile Since June 2023, World Forum The Hague has been working with NineID as a security platform. NineID ensures that all necessary information, such as training, safety checks, permits, identity documents, and certificates of visitors, contrac tors and employees, is collected before they even visit the venue. Once a person is verified and checked, they can access the building using biometric facial authentication, QR code scanning or mobile phone authentication. For every event, World Forum draws up an event risk profile in which potential risks are inventoried, including digital threats. Based on this, recom mendations are made to protect visitors and orga nisers against cyber and physical threats. The convention centre also has an on-site crisis management team that can respond immediately to security incidents, including digital attacks. This team works closely with local authorities such as police and emergency services.

Robert Molenaar ' The event industry continues to believe that it's not an interesting target, but it's precisely this attitude that makes them vulnerable'

Marco Spruit ' You'd hope that organisations already feel the urgency, but sometimes legislation is the only thing that works to raise awareness'

“Events may not be of vital interest in the stric test sense, but cancelling them can have a social impact, such as chaos, image damage and finan cial claims. If a city or government organises such a meeting, it may also fall under the new legislation,” says Spruit. Consider cybersecurity a business risk The main message from both experts is don’t see cybersecurity as an IT issue but as a busi ness interest. “It’s like fire safety: you hope it never happens, but you have to be ready for it,” explains Spruit. According to Molenaar, it helps to normalise the conversation about this. “Boards have to ask themselves: what happens if we’re down for three days? What will it cost? What will that do to our image? These questions are much more concrete than wondering whether the firewall is up-to-date.” The good news is that those who have taken care of the basics are already a lot less vulnerable. “You don’t have to be Fort Knox, but it should be difficult for hackers since most of them look for easy targets,” says Molenaar.

department. Hired specialists or even owners usually maintain digital infrastructure,” says Molenaar. “There’s not enough knowledge and definitely no time or budget to work on security structurally. The Netherlands has about 400,000 small busi nesses. If they are hit, we may not immediately notice it in national security. But they are links in the chain, and with such weak links, you can still hit a larger organisation,” Spruit adds. Conferences are quite vulnerable It is critical for the conference sector to be vigilant of this chain dependency. Many organi sers work with external parties for ticketing, communication and databases. “If one of those links is unsafe, then you’re also vulnerable as an organiser,” warns Molenaar. The danger is real, as recent DDoS attacks on cultural and political institutions have shown. In October 2023, hacktivists plagued the Center for Information and Documentation Israel for days. Governments are also increasingly being targeted. For instance, a cyber attack on a Ministry of Defence network in 2024 paralysed the emergency services’ communication and disrupted air traffic, among others.

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