Tural Mammadov, a representative of Azerbaijan's State Service of Special Communication and Information Security, took part as a speaker in the Underground Economy 2026 (UE26) international cybersecurity event held in Strasbourg, France, on September 7–10.
According to Report, citing the State Service, the closed international platform brought together cybersecurity and threat intelligence specialists, law enforcement representatives and policymakers.
Mammadov delivered a presentation titled "Politically Motivated Cyber Operations."
He discussed how political and geopolitical developments influence the selection of targets, timing and objectives of cyber operations, as well as the comprehensive analysis of cyber activity based on technical telemetry and geopolitical context and the early detection of threats to government information infrastructure.
Mammadov noted that relying solely on technical indicators is insufficient when assessing politically motivated cyber operations, stressing the need to consider the strategic importance of a target, political timing and the broader logic of a campaign.
The presentation also highlighted the role of centralized monitoring and cyber threat intelligence capabilities in detecting potential cyber operations at an early stage by linking individual weak signals into a broader picture.
In this context, participants were briefed on the practical experience and approaches of the State CERT Center under the State Service.