The new US National Cyber Strategy points to Russia, China, North Korea and Iran as the main international actors responsible for launching malicious cyber and information warfare campaigns against Western interests and democratic processes. Washington made clear its intention of scaling the response to the magnitude of the threat, while actively pursuing the goal of an open, secure and global Internet. The first Report of the ISPI Center on Cybersecurity focuses on the behaviour of these “usual suspects”, investigates the security risks implicit in the mounting international confrontation in cyberspace, and highlights the current irreconcilable political cleavage between these four countries and the West in their respective approaches “in and around” cyberspace.

The first Report of the ISPI Center on Cybersecurity focuses on the behaviour of these "usual suspects," investigates the security risks implicit in the mounting international confrontation in cyberspace, and highlights the current irreconcilable political cleavage between these four countries and the West.

This book is an extremely relevant must read for anyone concerned with the current cyber threat against United States' national and economic security. Over the past few years, the U.S. has increasingly been the victim of sophisticated and significant cyber attacks by state-sponsored and malicious individual actors. These threats have progressively targeted the U.S. military and political systems, financial institutions, healthcare systems, electric grid, dams, and retail sectors. The total extent of damage and loss we may never know... until it's too late. In 2019, revenues from malicious cyber actors exceeded the combined revenues of Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google. In a single year more than 3 billion U.S. accounts were hacked. These malicious actors are aggressively investing in talent, technology and tactics. They are coordinated, trained, highly sophisticated, and most importantly...undeterred.Despite formidable U.S. government and private industry cyber capabilities, the nation lacks the necessary strategy for integrated cybersecurity. Its current policy leaves its privately-owned critical infrastructure struggling to defend itself against a rapidly growing cyber storm which threatens to undermine and envelope U.S. cyber defenses. The result is a nation highly vulnerable to cyber threats which could expose the U.S. to a potentially catastrophic impact on national security and the economy.Through detailed analysis and real-world military strategy, healthcare, and financial sector experience, the author presents a pragmatic remedy to securing the nation against cyber threats. Using coercion and other instruments of statecraft, this book explores the art of strategy to devise a public-private means to effectively influence cyber threats, along with the vernacular and constructs necessary to carry it out. . This book goes beyond academic policy; it is a battle-cry to action offering practical solutions for every nation's leadership when Confronting the Cyber Storm."In this book, Banks has concisely laid out a compelling, well-documented case for a coercive strategy as part of an overall national cybersecurity strategy. His case studies make clear the need. His recommendations reveal a deep understanding of the threat as well as of the tools available to government and private industry to meet it."Eric J. McNulty, MA, Associate Director and Program Co-director Harvard University's National Preparedness Leadership Initiative, a joint program of the Harvard Chan School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government."Banks delivers an incredibly relevant book for our time. Full of rich detail on the state of all things cyber, he calls out the deficiencies in current Western cyber strategies and pitches a comprehensive coercion strategy to protect our future. The wise will heed his call to action, turn the tables on malicious cyber actors, and give them something meaningful to worry about." Dr. Christian Watt, Colonel, USAF, Associate Dean U.S. Air Force War College "This book offers a much-needed structure to policy discussions surrounding cyber conflict. Col (ret) Banks' important perspectives offer a cogent pathway to think about and operationalize cyber strategy. While many "strategies" for cyberspace exist, they are more often than not policy pronouncements rather than "strategy" in the classical sense of the term. The frameworks he provides offer a pathway for ends, ways and means the United States should go on the offensive as a nation to confront aggressive adversaries in the cyber domain and more broadly integrating cyberspace into our toolkit for national statecraft and grand strategy."Dr. Pano Yannakogeorgos. Clinical Associate ProfessorNew York University, Faculty Lead - MS Global Security, Conflict & Cybercrime

The Russia Scare assesses the scope, character and extent of Russian interference in the affairs of liberal democratic states. This book examines the ‘Russia scare’ in a dynamic manner, stressing the interaction between threat perception, responses and subsequent policies. What forms did this threat take, what were the instruments used, how effective were the deployed tools and who were the allies with whom Russia worked in these endeavours? Above all, what impact did interference have on target societies? The book explores why Russia engaged in such activities, what the probable chain of command was (if any) and the role of the Russian leadership in all of this, as well as investigating the response of Western societies and governments. The author sifts the real from the imagined, which can only be achieved by establishing the larger historical context. He scrutinises the fundamental question: was Russia before the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 really engaged in a sustained ‘hybrid warfare’ campaign to sow discord and undermine Western democracies? If so, what were the strategic purposes underlying such an activity? Various hypotheses are analysed, notably that Russian post-Cold War activity is nothing exceptional in the context of great power confrontation; that all great powers are engaged in one way or another in such actions, and thus contextualisation is important; and that Russia’s subversive activity was often exaggerated, even misrepresented. Responses potentially amplified the elements of subversion represented by the original threat. Threats exist, but responses always need to be calibrated so as not to inflict self-harm on the integrity of liberal democracy itself. This book will be of great interest to students, scholars and academics of international relations, comparative politics, security and defence studies, global governance and Russian politics, as well as politicians, political advisers, NGOs, diplomats and journalists.

Analogies help us think, learn, and communicate. The fourteen case studies in this volume help readers make sense of contemporary cyber conflict through historical analogies to past military-technological problems. The chapters are divided into three groups. The first--What Are Cyber Weapons Like?--examines the characteristics of cyber capabilities and how their use for intelligence gathering, signaling, and precision strike compares with earlier technologies for such missions. The second section--What Might Cyber Wars Be Like?--explores how lessons from several wars since the early 19th century, including the World Wars, could apply or not apply to cyber conflict in the 21st century. The final section--What Is Preventing and/or Managing Cyber Conflict Like?--offers lessons from 19th and 20th century cases of managing threatening actors and technologies.