ProDefence at the BlackSea Maritime Cybersecurity Conference: investigating cybercrime in a time of conflict
Event report, November 2024.
On 21–22 November 2024, the Maritime University of Constanța hosted the first edition of the BlackSea Maritime Cybersecurity conference, themed “Countering cybercrime threats in the current context of the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East”. ProDefence CEO Alexandru Angheluș, also President of CYSCOE, presented a real malware-driven financial fraud case and chaired a closed roundtable on cybercrime investigation.
Key points
- The conference was organised by the Maritime Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence (MARCYSCOE) with major Romanian universities.
- Topics: the legal and operational difficulties of investigating cybercrime during armed conflicts, including attacks on critical infrastructure.
- ProDefence presented a real case of financial fraud through data theft with malware.
- A closed roundtable discussed investigation methods, institutional cooperation and training.
The conference theme
The digital battlefield increasingly overlaps with conventional warfare. Attacks on ports, shipping companies and energy infrastructure in the Black Sea region raise a practical question: how can such incidents be investigated when attackers, servers and victims are spread across jurisdictions, some of them in conflict zones?
Speakers, from cybersecurity specialists and lawyers to researchers, stressed the need for harmonised legal frameworks that support cybercrime investigations, especially those targeting critical infrastructure, in the face of hybrid threats.
The ProDefence case study
Alexandru Angheluș presented a real cybercrime case involving financial fraud through data theft via malware. The presentation followed the incident step by step:
- the attack vector and how the malware reached the victim;
- the data exfiltration mechanism;
- the investigative steps used to reconstruct and document the incident.
The case illustrated the type of work ProDefence carries out in cybercrime investigation support, malware and fraud analysis and incident response.
Closed roundtable
Alexandru Angheluș also chaired a closed roundtable with representatives of law enforcement and academia specialised in cybercrime. The discussion covered:
- new investigation methods for cyber incidents;
- cooperation models between institutions;
- the need for stronger education and training in digital investigations and cyber law.
ProDefence and CYSCOE
ProDefence is a founding member of CYSCOE, the Cyber Security Cluster of Excellence, and contributes technical capabilities and strategic input to its mission. Participation in events such as BlackSea Maritime Cybersecurity supports cross-sector collaboration against modern cyber threats. Related: ProDefence at the MARCYSCOE maritime cybersecurity course.
