Recent analysis

Why data governance matters: Use, trade, intellectual property, and diplomacy

Report Jun 25, 2025

Crash (exploit) and burn: Securing the offensive cyber supply chain to counter China in cyberspace 

By Winnona DeSombre Bernsen

If the United States wishes to compete in cyberspace, it must compete against China to secure its offensive cyber supply chain.
China Cybersecurity
Why data governance matters: Use, trade, intellectual property, and diplomacy

New Atlanticist Jun 5, 2025

Cyberattacks are hurting US businesses. Here’s how Congress can upgrade cybersecurity information sharing.

By Tanner Wilburn, Sara Ann Brackett, and Urmita Chowdhury

Hackers are targeting small and medium-sized businesses, and the existing framework for sharing important information is leaving these US companies out of the loop.
Cybersecurity Economy & Business
Why data governance matters: Use, trade, intellectual property, and diplomacy

Russia Tomorrow May 20, 2025

Unpacking Russia’s cyber nesting doll

By Justin Sherman

The latest report in the Atlantic Council’s Russia Tomorrow series explores Russia’s wartime cyber operations and broader cyber web.
Cybersecurity Digital Policy

Programs

The Atlantic Council Technology Programs comprises five existing efforts—the Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), the GeoTech Center, the Cyber Statecraft Initiative, the Democracy + Tech Initiative, and the Capacity Building Initiative. These operations work together to address the geopolitical implications of technology and provide policymakers and global stakeholders necessary research, insights, and convenings to address challenges around global technology and ensure its responsible advancement.

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Content

GeoTech Cues

Sep 15, 2020

Why data governance matters: Use, trade, intellectual property, and diplomacy

By Pari Esfandiari, PhD, Gregory F. Treverton, PhD

Global data and internet governance represents a scattered, multi-stakeholder, bottom-up, and driven by loose coordination among various players. Data governance can be thought of as incorporating a triangle of individuals and their privacy, nation-states and their interests, and the private sector and its profits. Its current status and prospects might be thought of along several lines of activity, which are interrelated but, for the sake of clarity and with some danger of oversimplification, are discussed in the following different sections: privacy and data use; regulating to police content; using antitrust to dilute data monopolies; self-regulation and digital trade; intellectual property rights; and digital diplomacy.

Cybersecurity Digital Policy

New Atlanticist

Sep 11, 2020

India’s growing hostility towards Chinese technology shifts landscape of US-China data and cloud competition

By Justin Sherman and Lily Liu

US and Chinese tech companies, including in the cloud computing space, are competing for users within India. As the Indian government’s relations with Beijing change, so too does the landscape of this technological battleground.

China Cybersecurity

In the News

Sep 10, 2020

Borghard in the Council on Foreign Relations: Congress should act to ensure weapon systems’ cybersecurity

By Atlantic Council

Erica argues that Congress should create the conditions for the DoD to develop a more complete picture of the scope, scale, and implications of cyber threats and vulnerabilities to critical weapon systems and functions and improve their resilience. More about our expert

Cybersecurity Political Reform

In the News

Sep 9, 2020

Pandemic puts pressure on innovators to speed up

By Atlantic Council

“Necessity is the mother of invention, and right now, COVID-19 has created the need for tools to treat the current pandemic and mitigate the effects of future outbreaks, Dr. Bray said. The situation reminds him of how the risk from house fires prompted innovators to design a system to warn occupants before it was too late. ‘Can we instrument the planet in such a way that we’ll have earlier warning signs about new viruses and infections, analogous to smoke detectors?’”

Civil Society Coronavirus

Event Recap

Sep 9, 2020

Event recap | Western society at the crossroads, part I: Data, people, and tech

By GeoTech Center

On Wednesday, September 9 from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. EDT, the Atlantic Council’s GeoTech Center hosted an engaging expert panel discussion about the geopolitical ramifications of both new data capabilities and new technologies as well as the challenges they pose to defense and national security in Western governments and open societies.

Cybersecurity Digital Policy

Report

Sep 9, 2020

Future of DHS Project: Full report

By Thomas Warrick & Caitlin Durkovich

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) needs to refocus its mission to lead the defense of the United States against major nonmilitary threats.

China Coronavirus

In the News

Sep 8, 2020

Pandemic accents federal need for identification technology

By Atlantic Council

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of Americans have become increasingly reliant upon digital tools for their very survival. Whether in digital workspaces, or online applications for essential aid through unemployment insurance and other forms of relief, Americans have depended on digital resources to get through this tumultuous time. The crisis, though, has highlighted the weakness of much of the country’s digital infrastructure for handling such transactions, particularly in the lack of sufficient forms of digital identification. Dr. David Bray spoke to Signal magazine of the AFCEA on how Canada has implemented a form of digital identification that allowed them to overcome some of the hurdles faced by the US Government as it attempted to support the population.

Civil Society Coronavirus

Report

Aug 31, 2020

Four myths about the cloud: The geopolitics of cloud computing

By Trey Herr

Cloud computing providers are more than companies—they govern vast utility infrastructure, play host to digital battlefields, and are magnificent engines of complexity. Cloud computing is embedded in contemporary geopolitics; the choices providers make are influenced by, and influential on, the behavior of states. In competition and cooperation, cloud computing is the canvas on which states conduct significant political, security, and economic activity.

Cybersecurity Internet

In the News

Aug 28, 2020

Crisis innovation through data trusts: Dr. David Bray

By Atlantic Council

Major global crises like COVID-19 have proven how understanding data quickly and effectively will be essential to our survival; and, to meet that necessity, artificial intelligence will be key. However, without intentional choices to put people at the center of how we collect and manage data, artificial intelligence could spell the end of open societies, replaced instead with surveillance states or surveillance capitalism. “If companies or countries want to succeed in the next decade, we’ve got to figure out a way to do data with people, not to people,” Dr. Bray explained.

Cybersecurity Digital Policy

Cyber 9/12 Project

Aug 20, 2020

Washington, DC Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge Playbook

A Disaster to Entertain Poseidon and Ruin Christmas Scenario Summary Intelligence Report I Intelligence Report I Recommendations Intelligence Report II Intelligence Report II Recommendations Intelligence Report III Intelligence Report III Briefings Intelligence Report III Recommendations Scenario Summary This scenario takes place from October – December of 2022 and focuses on maritime cybersecurity and how non-state […]

Cybersecurity
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Experts

Millennium fellow

Dan Black

Principal Threat Analyst, NATO

Millennium Leadership Program

Cybersecurity Intelligence

Fellow

Joseph T. Bonivel Jr.

Nonresident Senior Fellow

GeoTech Center

Cybersecurity Defense Technologies

Fellow

Kevin P. Chilton

Distinguished Fellow

Forward Defense Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Cybersecurity Defense Industry

Fellow

Danny Citrinowicz  

Nonresident Fellow

Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

Arabic Cybersecurity

Fellow

Dakota Cary

Nonresident Fellow

Global China Hub

China Cybersecurity

Fellow

Winnona DeSombre Bernsen

Nonresident Fellow

Cyber Statecraft Initiative

China Chinese
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Events

Online Event Tue, September 9, 2025 • 8:30 am ET

Building cybersecurity capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa
Cybersecurity Digital Policy Internet of Things