The overarching question imparting urgency to this exploration is: Can U.S.-Russian contention in cyberspace cause the two nuclear superpowers to stumble into war? In considering this question we were constantly reminded of recent comments by a prominent U.S. arms control expert: At least as dangerous as the risk of an actual cyberattack, he observed, is cyber operations’ “blurring of the line between peace and war.” Or, as Nye wrote, “in the cyber realm, the difference between a weapon and a non-weapon may come down to a single line of code, or simply the intent of a computer program’s user.”
The Defending Digital Democracy Project (D3P) is not currently active. Stay tuned for Belfer Center updates.
Directed by Eric Rosenbach, the aim of the Defending Digital Democracy Project (D3P) is to identify and recommend strategies, tools, and technology to protect democratic processes and systems from cyber and information attacks. By creating a unique and bipartisan team comprised of top-notch political operatives, experts in technology, and leaders in the cyber and national security world, D3P intends to offer concrete solutions to an urgent problem.
Foreign nations and non-state actors are not backing down in their efforts to hack systems, alter the outcome, and undermine confidence in our elections. The Defending Digital Democracy Project helps institutions fortify themselves against these attacks by:
- Developing solutions to share important threat information with technology providers, governments, political organizations;
- Providing election administrators, election infrastructure providers, campaign organizations and leaders involved in democratic processes with practical “playbooks” to improve their cybersecurity;
- Developing strategies for how the United States and other democracies can credibly deter hostile actors from engaging in cyber and information operations;
- Assessing emerging technologies, such as blockchain, that may improve the integrity of systems and processes vital to elections and democracy;
- Convening civic, technology, and media leaders to develop best practices that can shield our public discourse from adversarial information operations.