Programs

The Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative, part of the Atlantic Council Technology Programs, 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.

Content

In the News

Oct 25, 2022

Guevara in El Heraldo de México: on the effectiveness of state’s strategic capabilities (in Spanish)

On October 25, TSI NRSF Inigo Guevara authored an op-ed in El Heraldo de México discussing what makes a state’s strategic capabilities effective (text in Spanish).

Cybersecurity Maritime Security

Issue Brief

Oct 17, 2022

China’s surveillance ecosystem and the global spread of its tools

By Bulelani Jili

This paper seeks to offer insights into how China’s domestic surveillance market and cyber capability ecosystem operate, especially given the limited number of systematic studies that have analyzed its industry objectives.

Cybersecurity

Hybrid Conflict Project

Sep 30, 2022

How the US can focus its fight against foreign influence operations

By Jennifer A. Counter

Understanding exactly what US adversaries plan to do in the information space is vital to building domestic defenses.

Conflict Cybersecurity

Tech at the Leading Edge

Sep 29, 2022

The ITU election pitted the United States and Russia against each other for the future of the internet 

By Konstantinos Komaitis and Justin Sherman

Earlier this morning, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) elected American candidate Doreen Bogdan-Martin as the agency's Secretary-General. Even with her election, the future role of the ITU in internet governance remains uncertain, and the organization will face challenges in the future debate over respecting extant internet processes while trying to drive genuine progress—and Beijing and Moscow will certainly not sit on the sidelines.

Cybersecurity United Nations

The 5×5

Sep 28, 2022

The 5×5—The Internet of Things and national security

By Simon Handler

Five experts from various backgrounds assess the national security challenges posed by IoT and discuss potential solutions.

Cybersecurity Digital Policy

Report

Sep 26, 2022

Security in the billions: Toward a multinational strategy to better secure the IoT ecosystem

By Patrick Mitchell, Liv Rowley, and Justin Sherman with Nima Agah, Gabrielle Young, and Tianjiu Zuo

The explosion of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and services worldwide has amplified a range of cybersecurity risks to individuals’ data, company networks, critical infrastructure, and the internet ecosystem writ large. In light of this systemic risk, this report offers a multinational strategy to enhance the security of the IoT ecosystem. It provides a framework for a clearer understanding of the IoT security landscape and its needs, looks to reduce fragmentation between policy approaches, and seeks to better situate technical and process guidance into cybersecurity policy.

Cybersecurity Internet of Things

Tech at the Leading Edge

Sep 22, 2022

Assumptions and hypotheticals: Second edition

By Emma Schroeder

In the second "Assumptions and Hypotheticals," we explore various topics, including the cyber sovereignty debate, the question of an attribution threshold, and the utility of cyber tools in crisis escalation.

Cybersecurity

Conflict, Risk, and Tech

Sep 19, 2022

Untangling the Russian web: Spies, proxies, and spectrums of Russian cyber behavior 

By Justin Sherman

This issue brief analyzes the range of Russian government’s involvement with different actors in the large, complex, and often opaque cyber web, as well as the risks and benefits the Kremlin perceives or gets from leveraging actors in this group. The issue brief concludes with three takeaways and actions for policymakers in the United States, as well as in allied and partner countries.

Cybersecurity Russia

Blog Post

Sep 15, 2022

Policy hackers take Vegas

By Will Loomis, Safa Shahwan Edwards, Trey Herr, Stewart Scott, and Sarah Powazek

Every year, in the early August heat, thousands of hackers from around the world head to Las Vegas, Nevada for a series of cybersecurity conferences known as Hacker Summer Camp. This year, the Cyber Statecraft Initiative – and a few friends – decided to ship out to see what all the hype is about.

Cybersecurity

Report

Sep 14, 2022

Dragon tails: Preserving international cybersecurity research

By Stewart Scott, Sara Ann Brackett, Yumi Gambrill, Emmeline Nettles, Trey Herr

A quantitative study on whether legal context can impact the supply of vulnerability research with detrimental effects for cybersecurity writ large through the coordinated vulnerability disclosure process (CVD), using recent regulations in China as a case study.

China Cybersecurity

Experts