UNOCT contributions to GISEC Global Cyber Drill 2025

The United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), through its Global Counter-Terrorism Programme on Cybersecurity and New Technologies, contributed to GISEC Global 2025, the Middle East and Africa’s largest cybersecurity event. Organized in collaboration with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the UAE Cyber Security Council, and GISEC Global, the event convened global experts to address pressing challenges in the digital threat landscape.

The UNOCT Cybersecurity programme participated in the panel discussion entitled “Building resilience, not just skills: Gender-responsive and holistic cyber capacity development,” held on 7 May. The session focused on practical approaches to equipping law enforcement not only with technical tools, but also with legal understanding, institutional coordination, and strong human rights safeguards. Drawing on the Programme’s ongoing work with Member States, the discussion underscored the importance of gender-responsive and sustainable capacity-building efforts to address the growing complexity of cyber-enabled threats.

That same day, the UNOCT Cybersecurity programme, in partnership with ITU and GISEC, co-organized a Cyber Drill exercise titled “OSINT Dark Web Investigation of Terrorist Cyber-Attack.” The hands-on exercise engaged 250 participants from 133 Member States in a simulated capture-the-flag scenario, where they applied open-source intelligence (OSINT) techniques to investigate a fictional cyber-attack linked to terrorist activity on the dark web. The drill highlighted the role of OSINT in counter-terrorism investigations and the value of simulation-based learning in strengthening practical skills.

On 8 May, the Cyber Programme presented findings from its latest research during the session “The Dark Web and Cyber-Crime-as-a-Service and its Impact on Cyber-Enabled Terrorism.” The presentation examined the growing convergence between terrorist actors and cybercriminal ecosystems, including how malicious tools and services are being procured through dark web marketplaces. This session was generously funded by the Republic of Korea, whose support is instrumental in advancing UNOCT’s work on countering the misuse of digital technologies by terrorist actors.