Cyber Operations Are a Team Sport: Navigating International Law and Collaboration in Cyberspace

Cyber Operations Are a Team Sport: Navigating International Law and Collaboration in Cyberspace

Speaker: Commander Kat Aubrey-Horvath, Director of Cyber Operations Law, Office of the Judge Advocate General, Canadian Armed Forces

When: 20 February 2026 (3pm – 4:30pm)

Where: Deakin Downtown (Level 12 of Tower 2, Collins Square, 727 Collins St, Melbourne Victoria 3008)

Program:

3:00pm – Welcome and Acknowledgment of Country – Professor Patrick Emerton, Deputy Dean, Deakin Law School

3:05pm – Opening remarks on behalf of the ARC program on Regulating Predictive Technologies for Preventive Counterterrorism – Professor Shiri Krebs, Director of the Centre for Law as Protection

3:10pm – Key speaker, Cdr Aubrey‐Horvath, “Cyber Operations Are a Team Sport: Navigating International Law and Collaboration in Cyberspace”

4:00pm – Q&A and discussion

4:30pm – reception

If you would like to join us for this in-person event, along with canapés and drinks, please sign up here.

Speaker Bio:

Cdr Aubrey‐Horvath holds a BA (Honours) in Political Science from Acadia University, a Juris Doctor (Dean’s List) from Queen’s University, and a Master of the Science of Law (JSM) from Stanford University.

Prior to joining the Canadian Armed Forces, Cdr Aubrey‐Horvath worked abroad in field of international law in several positions, including for the Global Commission on Elections, Democracy and Security based in California, with the Co‐ Prosecutors’ Office at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (Khmer Rouge Tribunal) in Phnom Penh, for Geneva for Human Rights at UN Headquarters in Geneva, and in the Office of the Attorney General in The Gambia, West Africa. She has also worked domestically as a legal and legislative advisor to Members of Parliament and a Senator, and for a private corporate law firm.

Upon joining the Office of the Judge Advocate General as a legal officer in 2012, Cdr Aubrey‐Horvath advised on critical questions of international law as part of the Directorate of International and Operational Law. She was then posted to the Canadian Forces Military Law Centre from 2014-2018, where she was in charge of Law of Armed Conflict training development and delivery. From July 2018 to January 2019, she was deployed to Mali, serving as the Legal Advisor for Canada’s initial military contingent deployed in support of the UN mission (MINUSMA). Upon her return to Canada and until July 2021, she occupied the position of Deputy Judge Advocate of Canadian Forces Base Kingston, where she advised roughly 35 units on issues as diverse as the law related to targeting, preparing for a court martial, and garnishing wages. Cdr Aubrey-Horvath was posted to Ottawa in 2021 to serve as a Deputy Director in the newly-created Military Justice Modernization Division, tasked with providing legal support to implement the recommendations from External Comprehensive Reviews of the military justice system. Most recently, Cdr Aubrey-Horvath became the Director of Cyber Operations Law in 2023, where she leads a team of military lawyers supporting the Canadian government and the military on a diverse range of issues related to the cyberspace domain.

She is married to a former US Army JAG legal officer-turned academic, with whom she shares a love of the Law of Armed Conflict, two young children, and a golden retriever named Geneva (after the Conventions).