The first quarter of 2022 has been a fruitful period for the EaPConnect project in terms of capacity building events and knowledge transfer activities thanks to the project team’s continuous efforts to identify and address the project partners’ needs and share specific knowledge. As a result, the management and communications teams worked closely together to organise and deliver 4 workshops, across February and March, welcoming participants from the EaPConnect partner countries and NRENs from the South East Europe (SEE) region.

As society becomes more digitally dependent, it is becoming increasingly challenging for security professionals and individual users alike to keep their networks and services secure. For instance, DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) is a growing threat within the R&E networking community with a large number of NRENs reporting on this type of attacks every month. Two of the EaPConnect training sessions helped to address the current security challenges faced by R&E organisations with the objective to increase knowledge of DDoS and eduVPN –  secure and encrypted connectivity for R&E. The DDoS training focussed on the NeMo-DDoS software tool which was originally developed to address NREN-specific network analysis needs. The eduVPN training illustrated both the service advantages as well as the more technical aspects of its deployment for R&E institutions.

A VPN should be like a castle

Klaus Möller, DFN-CERT Services GmbH

Recognising that it’s vital to maintain not only technical excellence and expertise, but also to nourish management and communications skills, the project teams organised a successful Public Affairs workshop (part one) on ‘How to write powerful position papers’.  With the guidance of an experienced external communications professional, workshop participants discussed the circumstances and requirements for powerful position papers and their potential impact, and how to liaise with politicians effectively. The workshop also comprised a hands-on activity on how to write a position paper including peer-to-peer discussions as well as in-depth recommendations and evaluations from the expert. Part two of the Public Affairs workshop will take place later on in the year.

With so many interesting topics and areas of interest to choose from, the EaPConnect teams are already busy preparing a programme of activities for the next quarter of 2022.

For more information about EapConnect and how to get in touch visit: https://eapconnect.eu/

EaPConnect is funded by the European Union within the EU4Digital initiative under Grant Agreement number ENI/2019/407-452. EU4Digital promotes key areas of the digital economy and society, in line with EU norms and practices.