Rain Ottis


Rain Ottis is an Estonian cybersecurity researcher and educator at Tallinn University of Technology. He was listed as a technical expert for the first edition of the Tallinn Manual on international law and cyber warfare, prepared under the invitation of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence.

Career

Ottis has held academic and leadership roles at TalTech, including as a tenured associate professor and as head of the university's Centre for Digital Forensics and Cyber Security. In an internal TalTech directive establishing a CERT operations centre, he is listed as head of the cyber forensics and cybersecurity centre.
NATO CCDCOE has described Ottis as one of the centre's first employees and an essential contributor to its exercise programme, including Locked Shields, and stated that he served at the CCDCOE as a researcher/scientist from 2008 to 2012 and previously served in the Estonian Defence Forces in roles focused on cyber defence training and awareness.

Locked Shields

TalTech lists Ottis among key personnel in its work supporting the CCDCOE cyber defence exercise Locked Shields, including leadership roles on the exercise's White Team. Wired has identified him in reporting on the exercise as CCDCOE ambassador and head of the White Team, and Al Jazeera profiled him in a feature about the exercise.

Research

Ottis has published on cyber conflict and cyber defence, including analysis of the 2007 cyberattacks against Estonia hosted in CCDCOE's publications library.
He has also served on CCDCOE's annual Conference on Cyber Conflict peer-review structures; conference proceedings list him as co-chair of the Academic Review Committee in 2017.
In Estonian media coverage, he has been cited in connection with cybersecurity capacity-building, including commentary as director of a cybersecurity centre and the need for more specialists.

Awards and honours

Ottis received the Order of the White Star, 5th Class, in 2016.
He has also received TalTech's medal of merit Mente et manu.

Selected works

  • Ottis, Rain. Analysis of the 2007 Cyber Attacks Against Estonia from the Information Warfare Perspective.
  • Ottis, Rain. A Systematic Approach to Offensive Volunteer Cyber Militia.