Siim Alatalu joined ICDS in June 2024 as a cybersecurity fellow and is in this capacity also in charge of the programme of the Tallinn Digital Summit. His most recent managerial appointment was being the CEO of Foundation CR14 (www.cr14.ee), the Estonian Ministry of Defence-founded public body that offers military-grade cyber range services for domestic and international, private and public sector partners in the areas of training, exercises, testing, validation and experimentation. Siim joined CR14 from the Estonian Information System Authority RIA where he was in charge, as the founding Director, of EU CyberNet (www.eucybernet.eu). In this position his task was to envision and lead the establishment of the pan-European initiative from scratch, inter alia establishing LAC4 (www.lac4.eu) – the EU’s regional cybersecurity competence centre for the entire Latin America and Caribbean region.
Before EU CyberNet Siim worked at the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE; www.ccdcoe.org). As its Head of International Relations from 2015, his primary role was to lead its external relations with a growing network of partners from governments, military, academia and industry. In 2021 the CCDCOE recognised Siim with the title CCDCOE Ambassador, an honorary title awarded to a former staff member of the CCDCOE who continues an affiliation with the Centre and contributes to building new partnerships. During the Estonian Presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2017, he also co-led the development of EU’s cyber policy and strategy, as Vice Chair of the Council’s Horizontal Working Party for Cyber Issues (HWP).
Between 2001 and 2014 Siim worked in different positions at the Estonian Ministry of Defence, including serving as a diplomat at the Estonian Delegation to NATO in Brussels, Belgium.
Siim Alatalu is a graduate of the Maxwell School of Syracuse University (Master of Arts in International Relations in 2006), as well as of the Baltic Defence College (Higher Command Studies Course 2011) and the University of Tartu (B.A. in history in 2001).