As cyber connectivity increases, foreign actors have been able to exploit vulnerabilities on smartphones, computers, and the digital infrastructure that supports them to undermine democracies. Probing and penetrating computer networks and connected systems allows malign actors to surreptitiously steal, alter, and collect data, damaging citizens’ privacy and disrupting organizational and institutional processes in democracies. Find ASD’s work on cybersecurity on this page.
Clint Watts Discusses Foreign Interference in 2020 Election on ‘Intelligence Matters’
In this episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell interviews former FBI Special Agent Clint Watts, current Distinguished Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and Non-Resident Fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democra [...]
Introductory Video: A Future Internet for Democracies
A Future Internet for Democracies: Contesting China’s Push for Dominance in 5G, 6G, and the Internet of Everything Lindsay Gorman, Fellow for Emerging Technologies at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, discusses China's lead in shaping the future [...]
David Levine on Safeguarding Electoral Integrity Through Better Cybersecurity
Elections Integrity Fellow David Levine joined an IFES panel to discuss effective cybersecurity practices for securing elections. Read more on the topic in Levine and IFES' Beata Martin-Rozumilowicz's recent report Cyberattacks, Foreign Interferenc [...]
Laura Rosenberger and Lindsay Gorman in Lawfare: Foreign Interference is a Strategy, Not a Tactic
Geopolitics over the next several decades will be defined by competition between democracies and autocracies. This contest is already playing out across the military, economic and diplomatic domains—and in the information arena as well. As former Pr [...]
Josh Rudolph Discusses the Role of Cryptocurrency in Election Interference on a Panel at CNAS
ASD Fellow for Malign Finance Josh Rudolph joined Levi Gundert and Jesse Spiro in a panel discussion on the role of cryptocurrency in election interference at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). [...]
David Levine Discusses Cybersecurity and the 2020 Election with The Fulcrum
ASD Elections Integrity Fellow David Levine discussed Microsoft's preemptive strike on the ransomware botnet TrickBot and what it means for election security in 2020 with The Fulcrum's Jeff Plungis. [...]
Lindsay Gorman Discusses Data and National Security at the National Press Foundation
Fellow for Emerging Technologies Lindsay Gorman joined Adam Segal of the Council of Foreign Relations and Clete Williams of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP in an online panel discussion at the National Press Foundation to discuss the dangers [...]
Prospects for European and U.S. Policy toward Iran
This policy paper was co-authored with Edgar P. Tam, visiting senior fellow at the Paris Office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Please click the link at the right to view the full paper. President Donald Trump’s views on Iran hav [...]
David Levine in an Online Panel Discussion on Cybersecurity and Election Interference at Sierra College
Elections Integrity Fellow David Levine joined an online panel discussion on cybersecurity and election interference hosted by Sierra College. [...]
Introductory Video: Iran’s Authoritarian Playbook
ASD Middle East Fellow Ariane Tabatabai gives readers a short introduction to her recently released report Iran's Authoritarian Playbook: The Tactics, Doctrine, and Objectives behind Iran’s Influence Operations. In one of the first comprehensive di [...]
Iran’s Authoritarian Playbook: The Tactics, Doctrine, and Objectives behind Iran’s Influence Operations
Introduction According to a 2013 indictment by the U.S. Department of Justice, hackers backed by a foreign power gained access to the controls of the Bowman Avenue Dam, a small dam in the New York City suburb of Rye, New York. Cyberattacks on inf [...]
Clint Watts on Deepfakes and American Democracy in the Washington Post
ASD Non-Resident Fellow Clint Watts co-authored a piece on deepfakes and their impact on American democracy with Tim Hwang of the University of Texas at Austin in the Washington Post. [...]