Hybrid threats represent one of the rising challenges to the safe and effective management of digital systems worldwide. The deliberate misuse or disruption of digital technologies has wide-ranging implications for fields as diverse as medicine, social media, and homeland security. Despite growing concern about cyber threats within many government agencies and international organizations, few strategies for the effective avoidance and management of threats or the prevention of the disruption they can cause have so far emerged. This book presents multiple perspectives based upon a NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme Advanced Research Workshop on ‘Resilience and Hybrid Threats’ held in Pärnu, Estonia from 26-29 August 2018, and includes a mixture of workshop summary papers and invited perspectives from world experts. Topics include the development of strategies for the protection and recovery of systems affected by hybrid threats, and the benefits of those strategies under different disruption scenarios. The role of risk and resilience assessment pertaining to the information domain is a common focus across all perspectives. Offering an overview of resilience-based decision making through an approach that integrates the threats and dependencies related to infrastructural, informational, and social considerations, the book will be of interest to all those whose work involves the security of digital systems.

Today's security environment is increasingly complex and unpredictable, with cyber attacks and hybrid warfare blurring the lines between conventional and unconventional forms of conflict, threats to energy security such as climate change and natural disasters, and disruptive technologies like AI and quantum computing. The challenge of adapting and responding to these threats calls for cooperation and novel ways of thinking.This book presents 11 edited contributions from the NATO Advanced Training Course (ATC) Strengthening SEE Resilient Cyber Defense against Hybrid Threats (STRENGTH), held as an online event from 26 September - 02 October 2021. The ATC brought together more than 60 military and civilian expert participants with 19 renowned professors, experts and practitioners from 14 NATO Member and Partner countries as speakers and lecturers. The ATC aimed to raise awareness about the Alliance and the South Eastern Europe (SEE) evolving complex-threat environment and establish the foundation for a long-term multidisciplinary collaboration among defense and security experts and academia, with the event serving as a first step in the creation of a SEE Network of defense-security and academic experts which can work across borders, linking state of the art of research and practice to build resilience against hybrid warfare capabilities. Participants learned how state and non-state actors acquire hybrid threats via cyberspace to achieve their strategic ends, and took part in working groups, moderated by invited speakers/lecturers, engaging in the productive discussion of questions related to the course topic. The event concluded with briefings presenting relevant case studies and lessons learned.

This edited volume provides scholars and practitioners with an in-depth examination of the role of civil-military cooperation in addressing hybrid threats. As they combine the simultaneous employment of conventional and non-conventional tools and target not only military objectives but governments and societies at large, hybrid threats cannot be countered solely by military means, but require an equally inclusive response encompassing a wide range of military and civilian actors. This book, which combines the perspectives of academics, military officers, and officials from international and non-governmental organisations, resorts to different case studies to illustrate the importance of civil-military cooperation in enhancing the resilience of NATO members and partners against a wide range of societal destabilization strategies, thereby contributing to the formulation of a civil-military response to hybrid threats.

Until recently, the Arctic was almost impossible for anyone other than indigenous peoples and explorers to traverse. Pervasive Arctic sea ice and harsh climatological conditions meant that the region was deemed incapable of supporting industrial activity or a Western lifestyle. In the last decade, however, that longstanding reality has been dramatically and permanently altered. Receding sea ice, coupled with growing geopolitical disputes over Arctic resources, territory, and transportation channels, has stimulated efforts to exploit newly-open waterways, to identify and extract desirable resources, and to leverage industrial, commercial, and transportation opportunities emerging throughout the region. This book presents papers from the NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) Governance for Cyber Security and Resilience in the Arctic. Held in Rovaniemi, Finland, from 27-30 January 2019, the workshop brought together top scholars in cybersecurity risk assessment, governance, and resilience to discuss potential analytical and governing strategies and offer perspectives on how to improve critical Arctic infrastructure against various human and natural threats. The book is organized in three sections according to topical group and plenary discussions at the meeting on: cybersecurity infrastructure and threats, analytical strategies for infrastructure threat absorption and resilience, and legal frameworks and governance options to promote cyber resilience. Summaries and detailed analysis are included within each section as summary chapters in the book. The book provides a background on analytical tools relevant to risk and resilience analytics, including risk assessment, decision analysis, supply chain management and resilience analytics. It will allow government, native and civil society groups, military stakeholders, and civilian practitioners to understand better on how to enhance the Arctic’s resilience against various natural and anthropogenic challenges.

In answer to the unprecedented challenges and threats that face today’s globalized world, the primary goal of this Handbook is to identify the most probable threats that have affected humanity in recent years and our world in years to come. The Handbook comprises mostly expository chapters that discuss tested methods/algorithms, case studies, as well as policy decision-making techniques surrounding threats and unnatural disasters, to evaluate their effects on people and to propose ways to mitigate these effects. In several chapters, new approaches and suggested policies supplement algorithms that are already in practice. The curated content brings together key experts from the academic and policy worlds to formulate a guide of principal techniques employed to gain better control over selected types of threats. This Handbook explores a wide range of technologies and theories and their impact on countering threats. These include artificial intelligence, machine learning, variational inequality theory, game theory, data envelopment analysis, and data-driven risk analysis. These tools play a vital role in decision-making processes and aid in finding optimal solutions. Additionally, a variety of optimization techniques are employed. These include (mixed) integer linear programming models for identifying critical nodes in complex systems, heuristics, approximation algorithms, and bilevel mixed integer programming for determining the most impactful links in dynamic networks. Furthermore, simulation tools are described that enable the quantification of societal resilience. These techniques collectively provide a mathematical framework capable of quantifying fundamental aspects of threats. They equip policymakers with the necessary tools and knowledge to minimize the impact of unnatural threats. The expected readership is wide and includes officials working in technical and policy roles in various ministries such as the Ministry of Defense, Civil Protection, Ministry of Public Order and Citizen Protection, United Nations, European Institutions for Threat Management, NATO, Intelligence Agencies, Centers of Excellence for Countering Threats, Think Tanks, Centers for Policy Studies, Political Leaders, the European Commission, National Institutes, International Organizations, Strategic Consulting Experts, Policymakers, and Foreign Affairs personnel. Some of these national or international organizations employ algorithms to measure resilience and enhance security. Quantification is challenging but crucial in the scenarios discussed in the book. This Handbook will also prove valuable to various universities (non-practitioners), studying systems engineering, leadership, management, strategy, foreign affairs, politics, and related disciplines.

This book presents the implementation of novel concepts and solutions, which allows to enhance the cyber security of administrative and industrial systems and the resilience of economies and societies to cyber and hybrid threats. This goal can be achieved by rigorous information sharing, enhanced situational awareness, advanced protection of industrial processes and critical infrastructures, and proper account of the human factor, as well as by adequate methods and tools for analysis of big data, including data from social networks, to find best ways to counter hybrid influence. The implementation of these methods and tools is examined here as part of the process of digital transformation through incorporation of advanced information technologies, knowledge management, training and testing environments, and organizational networking. The book is of benefit to practitioners and researchers in the field of cyber security and protection against hybrid threats, as well as to policymakers and senior managers with responsibilities in information and knowledge management, security policies, and human resource management and training.

Today’s security environment is increasingly complex and unpredictable, with cyber attacks and hybrid warfare blurring the lines between conventional and unconventional forms of conflict, threats to energy security such as climate change and natural disasters, and disruptive technologies like AI and quantum computing. The challenge of adapting and responding to these threats calls for cooperation and novel ways of thinking. This book presents 11 edited contributions from the NATO Advanced Training Course (ATC) Strengthening SEE Resilient Cyber Defense against Hybrid Threats (STRENGTH), held as an online event from 26 September – 02 October 2021. The ATC brought together more than 60 military and civilian expert participants with 19 renowned professors, experts and practitioners from 14 NATO Member and Partner countries as speakers and lecturers. The ATC aimed to raise awareness about the Alliance and the South Eastern Europe (SEE) evolving complex-threat environment and establish the foundation for a long-term multidisciplinary collaboration among defense and security experts and academia, with the event serving as a first step in the creation of a SEE Network of defense-security and academic experts which can work across borders, linking state of the art of research and practice to build resilience against hybrid warfare capabilities. Participants learned how state and non-state actors acquire hybrid threats via cyberspace to achieve their strategic ends, and took part in working groups, moderated by invited speakers/lecturers, engaging in the productive discussion of questions related to the course topic. The event concluded with briefings presenting relevant case studies and lessons learned.