Sven Herpig

Sven Herpig is project director for international cyber security policy. This includes the transatlantic expert network Transatlantic Cyber Forum (TCF), the EU Cyber Direct (EUCD) project funded by the European Commission as well as an ongoing analysis of German cyber security policies.

Sven’s current focal areas include attacks on machine learning applications, the resiliency strategy of the European Union, government hacking and vulnerability management best practices, security measures for protecting elections as well as the German cyber security architecture and policies.

Since the start of his academic career, Sven’s focus was the intersection of cyberspace and international relations. He conducted research inter alia on the application of social constructivism to discourse on the Internet, Internet governance by states and the strategic implications of cyber operations - his PhD work.

On the side, Sven works as Lecturer. His latest seminar focused on cyber strategies in the international context, taught 2017 at the Center for Global Studies, University of Bonn.

Before Sven set up the TCF, he was working with the federal government for several years. First, we worked with the IT security staff at the Federal Foreign Office. He then became deputy of the cyber security and society unit at the Federal Office for Information Security where he headed the internal negotiations for the federal cyber security strategy 2016 as single point of contact.

Sven served as German expert for the EU DG for Internal Policies Study on government hacking, presented inter alia at the US Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus, the European Parliament, the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute and the Employee Association for Foreign and Security Policy in the German Parliament.

He regularly appears in German, American and EU media and presents at international expert workshops and conferences.

Sven is member of the Security and Integrity Initiative for the protection of elections organized by the Federal Office for Information Security as well as member of Economic Council's federal working group on cyber security.