Science & Technology

Joseph Nye argues that prudence results from the fear of creating unintended consequences in unpredictable systems and can develop into a norm of nonuse or limited use of certain weapons or a norm of limiting targets. Something like this happened with nuclear weapons when the superpowers came close to the brink of nuclear war in 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis. The Limited Test Ban Treaty followed a year later.

A report on the interdisciplinary workshop on the development of a national capacity for the investigation of cyber Incidents.

Although cyber conflict has existed for thirty years, the strategic utility of cyber operations remains unclear. The subversive trilemma explains why cyber operations tend to fall short of their promise in both warfare and low-intensity competition.

The increasing tempo of offensive cyber operations by Iran and its adversaries, including the U.S. and Israel, has led many commentators to label them as “tit-for-tat”: a cyclical action-reaction dynamic where each side seeks to respond appropriately to an earlier violation by the other. However, this interpretation has significant theoretical and empirical deficiencies. Why, then, does a tit-for-tat narrative dominate our understanding of Iranian cyber activity, and what are the consequences? This paper explores that question.

This research paper conducts a deep dive into sources and includes interviews of senior information operations professionals to broadly identify strategic gaps in capability that continue to plague America’s information operations.

This report assesses common features of organized cybercrime groups and the socioeconomic conditions that influence cybercrime networks in specific countries. It seeks to provide a preliminary picture of how organized cybercrime groups operate and evolve and the conditions that likely allow them to thrive in particular locations using the case studies of Nigeria, India, and Mexico.

National security structures envisioned in the 20th century are inadequate for the cyber threats that America faces in the 21st century. These structures, created to address strategic, external threats on one end, and homeland security emergencies on the other, cannot protect us from ambient cyber conflict, because they were designed for different times and threats. Our nation—comprising the federal government, private sector companies, critical infrastructure operators, state and local governments, nonprofits and universities, and even private citizens—are constantly under attack by a myriad of cyber actors with ever-increasing capabilities. 

Christopher (Chris) Krebs, former Director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), has been named a non-resident Senior Fellow with the Homeland Security Project and the Cyber Project at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

Remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic has had, and continues to have, a great impact on the workforce. Through interviews with senior cyber security professionals, this research explored how the traditional dynamics between employees and leadership have adapted in such times, responding to a rapidly evolving cyber threat landscape, as well as an unpredictable period for organisations and employees in terms of wellbeing and remote working culture. Focusing on the transition to remote working, cyber security, the psychological contract (relationship between employees and employers) and employee wellbeing, the research highlighted several key themes.

Tarah Wheeler and Ciaran Martin write that banning ransomware payments may be seen as as unwarranted state interference in private commerce, but they believe that a coordinated country level response would rectify the glaring deficiency in the current reality: the near-total privatization of national security risk.