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Cybersecurity Disinformation

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Middle East The Gulf

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The 5×5

Jun 15, 2021

The 5×5—The state of cybersecurity in the Middle East

By Simon Handler

How will recent developments in the Middle East affect cybersecurity cooperation, and what does the future of the region’s cyber landscape look like?

Cybersecurity Iran

MENASource

May 11, 2021

Co-opting cybersecurity in Egypt

By Bassant Hassib and James Shires

Cybersecurity is one of several frequent and overlapping justifications for censorship by the Egyptian government, in addition to strengthened counterterrorism and media regulation.

Digital Policy Middle East

Issue Brief

Mar 1, 2021

A primer on the proliferation of offensive cyber capabilities

By Winnona DeSombre, Michele Campobasso, Dr. Luca Allodi, Dr. James Shires, JD Work, Robert Morgus, Patrick Howell O’Neill, and Dr. Trey Herr

Offensive cyber capabilities run the gamut from sophisticated, long-term disruptions of physical infrastructure to malware used to target human rights journalists. As these capabilities continue to proliferate with increasing complexity and to new types of actors, the imperative to slow and counter their spread only strengthens.

Arms Control Conflict
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James Shires was a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative. He is an assistant professor at the Institute for Security and Global Affairs, University of Leiden and a nonresident research fellow with the Cyber Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School. He is also a research affiliate with the Centre for Technology and Global Affairs at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford. He holds a DPhil in International Relations from the University of Oxford, an MSc from Birkbeck College, University of London and a BA from the University of Cambridge. His research examines cybersecurity in the Middle East, focusing on the interaction between threats to individuals, states and organizations, new regional dynamics, and the development of cybersecurity expertise. He has written widely on cybersecurity and international politics, and has won awards for his research from bodies such as the Hague Program on Cyber Norms, the German Marshall Fund, and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.