About
The 5×5 series by the Cyber Statecraft Initiative features five experts answering five questions on a common theme, trend, or current event in the world of cyber. Interested in the 5×5 and want to see a particular topic, event, or question covered? Contact Simon Handler with the Cyber Statecraft Initiative at [email protected].
Editions
Thu, May 13, 2021
The 5×5—How retaliation shapes cyber conflict
Imposing costs—or retaliation—in the physical domain has been studied, but what does retaliation look like in cyberspace and how is it different than retaliation in the physical domain?
The 5×5 by Safa Shahwan Edwards, Simon Handler
Fri, Mar 5, 2021
The 5×5—Questioning basic assumptions in the cyber domain
Challenging assumptions in cyberspace also means challenging assumptions about the theorists and strategists themselves. International Women’s Day, coming up on March 8, serves as a reminder to include female voices as a means of enriching policy discussions, producing more insightful work, and driving impact.
New Atlanticist by Simon Handler, Emma Schroeder
Thu, Feb 11, 2021
The 5×5—Looking ahead for the Biden administration after a busy year in cybersecurity
It’s been a wild twelve months in the world of cybersecurity since the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative launched the 5×5 series. In celebration of the series’ one-year anniversary, experts plotted the year ahead.
New Atlanticist by Simon Handler
Tue, Dec 22, 2020
The 5×5—A cyber wish list at a ‘moment of reckoning’
The recent SUNBURST compromise of numerous government and private sector company networks has led some, including Microsoft President Brad Smith, to dub the incident a “moment of reckoning.” Here’s what our experts are wishing for this holiday season.
New Atlanticist by Simon Handler
Thu, Oct 29, 2020
The 5×5—Trick or threat? The ghouls and goblins behind this year’s cyber incidents
This year has witnessed its fair share of unnerving cyber incidents from a range of spooky characters. But 2020 is not over yet. What further ghouls and goblins might lurk? Cyber Statecraft Initiative experts go 5×5 to discuss spine-chilling cyber incidents this Halloween.
New Atlanticist by Simon Handler
Wed, Oct 7, 2020
The 5×5—Cybersecurity and the 117th Congress
Approximately eighty congressional committees and subcommittees claim jurisdiction over at least some dimension of cybersecurity policy. As the agenda for the coming years is only getting more crowded, Congress must improve its agility in order to pass meaningful cybersecurity legislation effectively.
New Atlanticist by Simon Handler
Thu, Sep 24, 2020
Five big questions as America votes: Cybersecurity
With the next US presidential election looming, the next administration will face no shortage of substantive cyber policy issues. US adversaries such as China and Russia continue to undermine and fracture the free and open internet, while the technology ecosystem has been altered by the rapid adoption of cloud computing, placing immense power and responsibility in the hands of few technology giants, such as Amazon and Microsoft.
Elections 2020 by Cyber Statecraft Initiative
Wed, Jul 29, 2020
The 5×5—Fighting COVID-19 with surveillance: Perspectives from across the globe
As more countries rely on digital tools to contain the spread of COVID-19, how will enhanced surveillance challenge privacy norms in the future? According to the World Health Organization, public health surveillance is critical to containing the pandemic. However, can enhanced surveillance during a public health crisis set precedents for digital surveillance in the future?
New Atlanticist by Simon Handler and Lily Liu
Mon, Jun 22, 2020
The 5×5—Baseball and cybersecurity: Stealing insights from America’s pastime
Whether you have played, watched, hated, or never heard of baseball, lessons from the sport can be applied to many things in life—including cybersecurity. Cyber Statecraft Initiative experts go 5×5 to draw parallels between America’s pastime and today’s cybersecurity issues.
New Atlanticist by Simon Handler
Tue, May 26, 2020
The 5×5—Is it a game or is it real? Simulations and wargaming in cyber
Greater insight into risk and response allow public and private sector organizations to better prepare for crisis before it happens and rerun history to stave off defeat in future. Wargames can be complex live events or low-cost simulations. They can even be the basis for major reforms to policy and doctrine, giving us much to understand about them. Shall we play a game?
New Atlanticist by Simon Handler
Tue, Apr 21, 2020
The 5×5—On viral infections online and in the real world
Cybersecurity often gets reduced to breaches and hacking, but the world has witnessed multiple pandemics in cyberspace and could learn more about response to exponential events.
New Atlanticist by Simon Handler
Tue, Mar 24, 2020
The 5×5—Minding the cyber talent gap
Defending against threats in cyberspace is hard enough, but severe cybersecurity talent deficiencies have consistently made the challenge harder for both public and private sector organizations. Our Cyber Statecraft Initiative experts go 5×5 to dig into the people problem of cybersecurity, its implications, and possible solutions.
New Atlanticist by Simon Handler
Tue, Feb 25, 2020
The 5×5—The evolution of the internet and geopolitics
The internet has been a pivotal force behind the growth of the global digital economy and altered the relationship among states, their citizens, and the private sector. These changes have disrupted the geopolitical balance of power and ushered in a new generation of globally-powerful multinational companies. However, new dynamics of conflict are threatening the internet as we know it.
New Atlanticist by Simon Handler
Tue, Jan 28, 2020
The 5×5—The 2010s: A cyber decade in review
The past ten years have, among other things, witnessed the most-costly cyberattack on record, the discovery of a computer worm capable of wreaking physical destruction, and USCYBERCOM’s elevation to unified combatant command status. As we turn the page to 2020, we’re looking back to recap the most significant, overblown, and emergent cyber incidents of the decade.
New Atlanticist by Simon Handler
Program
The Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative, within the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, works at the nexus of geopolitics and cybersecurity to craft strategies to help shape the conduct of statecraft and to better inform and secure users of technology.