NCC strengthens partnership between government and business in OSINT and cybersecurity

This week, with the assistance of the NCCK, Ukraine's first closed conference on OSINT and intelligence, Kyiv Intelligence & Technology Exchange (KITE), was held in Kyiv, bringing together more than 500 participants from Ukraine and abroad. The event brought together representatives of the public and private sectors, experts in security, technology, and intelligence.

The conference, organized by the Molfar Intelligence Institute, brought together the public sector, the military, business, and OSINT communities. Participants not only discussed problems but also worked on solving them in practical formats, from intelligence quests and startup pitching to discussion panels and networking. Speakers from Ukraine, the US, and Lithuania shared their experiences on the use of social networks and messengers in investigations, the role of OSINT in modern security processes, the challenges of social engineering and cyber threats, as well as the interaction between the state and business in the field of security.

The conference included practical OSINT competitions, organized with the help of specialists from the National Cybersecurity Coordination Center at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, who developed tasks for participants and served as jury members. The tournament was opened by Natalia Tkachuk, Head of the Information Security and Cybersecurity Service of the NSDC of Ukraine and Secretary of the NCCK, who emphasized the importance of public-private partnerships in this area.

«OSINT is a key tool for national security during wartime. Open-source intelligence helps uncover and collect evidence of Russian war crimes, fight misinformation, spot attempts by Russian companies to get around sanctions, tackle cybersecurity issues, and more. But the government can't do all this on its own. For example, since the beginning of the invasion, more than 170,000 war crimes committed by the Russian Federation have been recorded. This is a global precedent. Without the help of civil society and private companies, it is simply impossible to collect the relevant electronic evidence to bring Russian criminals to justice. Therefore, your help is very important. But even more important is partnership and unity — only together are we strong, only together are we unbreakable, and only together can we win» , Natalia Tkachuk emphasized.

The tournament brought together over 100 participants who worked in more than 20 teams. The winning team received prizes from the event's partners.

KITE has become a unique platform for discussing the future of intelligence and cybersecurity, where technology, analytics, and partnerships play a key role.

Ukraine still faces challenges in the field of intelligence and cybersecurity, in particular, a shortage of analysts and insufficient systemic interaction between the military and external structures. That is why KITE has become an important platform for finding solutions, and the participation of the NCC in such events underscores the leading role of the state in shaping strategic approaches and developing partnerships at the national and international levels.