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.

Editions

New Atlanticist

Jul 29, 2020

The 5×5—Fighting COVID-19 with surveillance: Perspectives from across the globe

By Simon Handler and Lily Liu

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?

Africa Coronavirus

New Atlanticist

Jun 22, 2020

The 5×5—Baseball and cybersecurity: Stealing insights from America’s pastime

By Simon Handler

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.

Cybersecurity Technology & Innovation

New Atlanticist

May 26, 2020

The 5×5—Is it a game or is it real? Simulations and wargaming in cyber

By Simon Handler

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?

Cybersecurity

New Atlanticist

Apr 21, 2020

The 5×5—On viral infections online and in the real world

By Simon Handler

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.

Coronavirus Cybersecurity

New Atlanticist

Mar 24, 2020

The 5×5—Minding the cyber talent gap

By Simon Handler

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.

Cybersecurity

New Atlanticist

Feb 25, 2020

The 5×5—The evolution of the internet and geopolitics

By Simon Handler

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.

Cybersecurity Internet

New Atlanticist

Jan 28, 2020

The 5×5—The 2010s: A cyber decade in review

By Simon Handler

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.

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.