The Costs of Espionage
States spend a lot of time worrying about spies, and a lot of money trying to protect themselves from espionage. They construct multilayered personnel policies to keep untrustworthy individuals from government jobs that involve handling classified information. They invest heavily in complex information systems to block access to sensitive communications.
Beyond Breaches: The Spectrum of Costs from Espionage and Pre-Positioning
What are the costs of cyber espionage? And how do they differ from those of operations designed to prepare for attack?
Insuring the Unseen: Closing the Protection Gap in Economic Cyber-Espionage
Economic cyber espionage represents an ongoing threat to both nations and markets, yet unlike other cyber threats, it remains largely uninsured. This does not have to be the case. The underinsurance for economic cyber espionage is more of a mechanical problem, with coverage gaps hinging on proving damage to intangible assets. In fact, this protection gap persists even when attackers are “incompetent” (i.e., unable to use the IP they steal), since victims still incur measurable, indemnifiable costs.
Buying Security: Open Source Software Funding and Security Posture
The security of open source software (OSS) has morphed from a niche technical concern to a central cybersecurity policy challenge. High-profile incidents have led to suggestions for governments to help strengthen the OSS ecosystem, including calls for funds built to support open source projects and their maintainers, such as a proposal for an EU Sovereign Tech Fund. This research examines the argument that unconditional funding—namely, financial support without specific requirements for the recipient—causally improves the security posture of OSS projects.
Artificial Intelligence & Language Preservation
The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has designated 2022-2032 the International Decade of Indigenous Languages. This initiative comes at a time when endangered language speakers, linguists, and other groups are concerned about language extinction and the rapid spread of artificial intelligence (AI). Some researchers are optimistic that AI can be leveraged to help document, preserve, and revitalize at-risk languages, while others are concerned that the technology will accelerate the homogenization of human language.