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All in-depth research & reports

Report

Nov 7, 2022

The cyber strategy and operations of Hamas: Green flags and green hats

By Simon Handler

This report seeks to highlight Hamas as an emerging and capable cyber actor, and help the policy community understand how similar non-state groups may leverage the cyber domain in the future.

Conflict Cybersecurity

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

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

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

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

Issue Brief

Aug 2, 2022

Behind the rise of ransomware

By John Sakellariadis

Between 2016 and 2019, cybercriminals shifted from automated ransomware campaigns that emphasized scale to targeted extortion operations against organizations. This adaption made ransomware more disruptive and more profitable, culminating in the 2021 surge in ransomware. Though the US government has devoted more attention to ransomware since 2021, ransomware remains a significant and long-term threat to the US economy.

Cybersecurity

Conflict, Risk, and Tech

Jul 25, 2022

Hackers, Hoodies, and Helmets: Technology and the changing face of Russian private military contractors

By Emma Schroeder, Gavin Wilde, Justin Sherman, and Trey Herr

This issue brief explores the technological capabilities of Russian private military companies and how they are used across various types of missions in support of and in parallel with Russian policy.

Africa Cybersecurity

Issue Brief

Jun 14, 2022

Victory reimagined: Toward a more cohesive US cyber strategy

By Emma Schroeder, Stewart Scott, Trey Herr

US policy is on two potentially divergent paths: one that prioritizes the protection of American infrastructure through the pursuit of US cyber superiority, and one that seeks an open, secure cyber ecosystem.

Cybersecurity Security & Defense

In-Depth Research & Reports

Apr 18, 2022

America the Unready: Viking Age lessons for ransomware

By Emma Schroeder

“America the Unready: Viking Age lessons for ransomware” explores the rising tide of ransomware and presents three lessons that the US Government can learn from the English Viking Age about combating persistent, distributed threats through strengthening collective resilience and defense.

Cybersecurity

Issue Brief

Mar 30, 2022

Preparing the next phase of US cyber strategy

By Jenny Jun

This paper considers tensions in the current US cyber strategy for the Defense Department and the broader cyber policy community in the Biden-Harris administration as they form the next phase of the strategy and determine how, when, and under what conditions Defend Forward can best serve as a means to the goal of achieving superiority in cyberspace.

Cybersecurity

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.