Featured commentary & analysis
Notes from the field and analysis from our team—insights to give you practical leverage on the complex challenges of cybersecurity.
Wed, May 22, 2019
Crossing the cyber Rubicon: Views from both sides of the river
Did the IDF’s airstrike ‘cross the Rubicon’ by using lethal force in response to hacking? On the weekend of May 5, a month after a truce was agreed between Israel and Hamas forces in the Gaza Strip, violence again rose to levels not seen since 2014. Reports indicate that over 600 rockets were fired into Israel by Palestinian militants and were met by Israeli airstrikes on more than 300 targets. Upwards of twenty-three Palestinians and four Israelis were killed.
New Atlanticist by Jack Watson and William Loomis
Wed, Mar 27, 2019
Cyber Risk Wednesday: Supply Chain Security in the 21st Century
On March 27, 2019, the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative, housed within the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, hosted a public panel to discuss supply chain cybersecurity. The timely discussion, underwritten by Raytheon, followed on the heels of the March 25 disclosure that computer hardware company ASUS had unwittingly been delivering malicious software to ASUS computer owners via its automatic software update utility.
Cyber Risk Wednesdays by Jared Zimmerman
Wed, Apr 24, 2019
5G access key to competing globally, says Former Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff
US officials have warned that Huawei’s equipment could create a backdoor for the Chinese government to spy on US networks. But Huawei has repeatedly denied this claim. Even as governments grapple with this challenge, “we also should consider the next generation of technology that is going to support the Internet—and that is 5G,” said Michael Chertoff, who served as secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security from 2005 to 2009.
New Atlanticist by Ashish Kumar Sen
Featured in-depth research & reports
A synthesis of technical systems and policy dynamics, cybersecurity demands detailed understanding to create meaningful change. These reports dig deep into the concepts and assumptions that shape the geopolitics of cybersecurity.
Tue, Jul 16, 2019
Collective defense of human dignity: the vision for NATO’s future in cyberspace
An alliance under tension, NATO today faces the challenges of burden sharing, a multipolar world full of old adversaries and emerging challengers. In “Collective Defense of Human Dignity: The Vision for NATO’s Future in Cyberspace,” Christopher Porter, a nonresident senior fellow in the Cyber Statecraft Initiative at the Atlantic Council analyzes member states struggling with […]
Issue Brief by Christopher B. Porter
Mon, Sep 17, 2018
It takes a village: How hacktivity can save your company
With our modern-day reliance on digital technology, software and system vulnerabilities have become increasingly hard to avoid. Thoroughly eliminating all these vulnerabilities can be a challenge, but through a coordinated vulnerability disclosure (CVD) program, governments and private companies can mitigate them with the help of independent security researchers.
Report by Shaun Ee
Tue, Sep 11, 2018
Defining Russian election interference: An analysis of select 2014 to 2018 cyber enabled incidents
Of all the political ideas to defend themselves before the court of human history, few have proven as potent and as compelling as that of electoral democracy. Yet in recent years, electoral democracy has once more come under challenge, facing off against popular discontent, revisionist governments, and—most significantly—the rise of new media and digital technologies. […]
Issue Brief by Laura Galante & Shaun Ee
Featured event series
Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge
The Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge is a one-of-a-kind cyber competition designed to provide students from across academic disciplines with a deeper understanding of the policy and strategy challenges associated with management of tradeoffs during a cyber crisis.
International Conference on Cyber Engagement
The International Conference on Cyber Engagement draws on the experience of government practitioners, industry representatives, and academic scholars to bring a multidisciplinary and global approach to challenges in cyberspace.
Cyber Risk Wednesdays
The Cyber Risk Wednesday event series, underwritten by Raytheon, provides the cognitive and physical space to help policymakers, corporate leaders, and the public navigate technology and policy interrelationships in a language that resonates with them, and to inject foresight-driven and multidisciplinary analyses into core cyber debates.
Leadership
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Join our cause with the Cyber Statecraft Initiative of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.
Digital Statecraft, Digital Streetcraft Podcasts
Nowadays, information technology is an essential part of any nation-state’s toolkit. And yet, in the digital space, nation-states are just a few of many actors. A mastery of cyber operations can give nation-states the advantage they need to pursue their economic, national security or foreign policy goals. But without private sector and civil society cooperation, that mastery can be difficult to achieve. Hosted by the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative, Digital Statecraft Digital Streetcraft features diverse perspectives from thinkers in academia, industry and government. By bridging the worlds of statecraft and streetcraft, it examines questions at the nexus of information and communications technologies, geopolitics and national security, searching for cooperation to make cyberspace safer, more stable and more secure for all.
Episode 5: Digital Defenders
August 28, 2019
In this episode of Digital Statecraft, Digital Streetcraft, we are joined by Dr. Trey Herr, Director of the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative; Mariah Kenny, a recent Graduate from the University of Virginia and NCCDC UVA team captain; and Caroline Linkous, freshman and Echols Scholar at the University of Virginia. Together they discuss the importance of training and educating the next generation of cyber defenders in order to remain at the forefront of the cybersecurity field.
Episode 4: Supply Chain Security in the 21st Century
April 15, 2019
Supply chain attacks have caused some of the most damaging cyber incidents in history, including the 2017 NotPetya malware incident, and they are on the rise. The proliferation of internet-connected devices and the increased reliance of foreign manufacturing increases the attack surface for organizations and makes maintaining visibility into an entire supply chain challenging. The Atlantic Council and Raytheon facilitate a dynamic and solution-oriented discussion on mitigating supply chain risks in an increasingly-connected world.
Episode 3: Operationalizing Cyber Strategies
March 15, 2019
Early 2019 saw the biggest inflection point in US cyber strategy since 1998, with the White House, Department of Defense, and Cyber Command all publicizing new strategies. These new strategies adhering to persistent engagement will have second and third-order effects in the interconnected cyber world. The Atlantic Council and Raytheon facilitate a discussion covering whether these new strategies are the right strategies and how the US can make them work.
Episode 2: The Human Element of Cybersecurity
January 31, 2019
Humans are on the front lines of cybersecurity. As companies grow weary of disappointing “silver bullet” technical cybersecurity solutions, they need to turn to their workforce and the cyber community. Employees are more than just a weakness in the cyber perimeter; they can also be a valuable resource once equipped and educated. Employers should also be open to potential security professionals with unconventional backgrounds who can provide invaluable non-technical perspectives.
Episode 1: Protecting US Critical Infrastructure
December 21, 2018
The security of US critical infrastructure is vital to the nation’s security, prosperity, and well-being. We live in an era of constant advances in the sophistication of attack technology and the emergence of more destructive attacks and bolder nation-state actions, resulting in unprecedented access to power grid operations. Despite renewed concerns about the threat and the risks associated with potential disruptions, threats clearly outpace our ability to secure the infrastructure.
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