Improving Cyber Defense Assistance to Meet the Challenge of Hybrid Warfare

As governments and other potential donors of resources for cyber defense assistance consider how to do so efficiently, the requirement for establishing a framework and metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of delivered technological assistance has grown. While increasing levels of cyber defense assistance have been delivered to Ukraine, CDAC’s on-going convening of a wide range of governmental and private sector stakeholders indicate that no organization nor government has a deep understanding of how to assess the impact of these activities. 

CDAC would like the Capstone team to research possible approaches and recommend a framework for analyzing cyber defense assistance effectiveness based on the experience in Ukraine. The goal of this research is to help CDAC and others understand which types of assistance, under what conditions, and which types of recipient organizations are most effective in stopping and deterring cyber aggression. The research will be used by CDAC and others interested in improving the ability to deliver cyber defense assistance, to prioritize efforts, and to understand how to better apply the concept of cyber defense assistance to future conflicts in other regions around the world.