CYBERCULT · Strategic Cultures of Cyber Warfare

Strategic Cultures of Cyber Warfare

CYBERCULT (Strategic Cultures of Cyber Warfare) is a project that explores the use and proliferation of offensive cyber capabilities – human, virtual or technical tools to exploit, destroy, degrade, or disrupt computer networks. The project is situated in an international cyber security environment in which an increasing number of states are using such capabilities to achieve their political, economic, and strategic objectives. The researcher was particularly interested in using a sociological lens to explore this area of international security and utilised the concept of ‘strategic culture’ to pursue the research – this relates to the existence of common ideas, behaviours, practices and discourse in national, sub-national and supranational communities that shape how states (and non-state actors) think about cyber conflict and the use of offensive cyber capabilities. As such, The MSCA research fellow explored three main research questions during the course of the fellowship: 1. What influence does strategic culture have on (a) the adoption and development of OCC in western states, and (b) the ways OCC are used by those states to enhance their security and support their strategic objectives? 2. What are the similarities and difference in the perceptions of cyber policymakers and practitioners within and between western countries about the utility of OCC? 3. What influence does strategic culture have on the development and use of OCC in western states as compared to material considerations, such as effects and costs? The importance of the research relates to gaining a greater understanding of a source of significant international conflict and instability, as well as in providing relevant research to inform policy making processes, including at the EU and NATO level, that seek to enhance cyber security. The project therefore aimed to contribute to understanding a growing source of global insecurity and in its immediate relevance for policy. The overall objectives of the project were: 1. To establish a strategic culture-based theoretical concept that explains the development and use of OCC by western powers. 2. To produce a data set on perceptions of OCC 3. To produce a comparative analysis of OCC adoption in three of the World’s leading cyber powers

Data: CORDIS, © European Union