Cybersecurity Policy

Defending the Digital Realm: A Comprehensive Cybersecurity Guide

This book stems from the CyberBRICS project, which is the first initiative to develop a comparative analysis of the digital policies of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries. BRICS have been chosen as a focus not only because their digital policies are affecting more than 40% of the global population - i.e. roughly 3.2 billion individuals living in such countries - but also all the individuals and businesses willing to use technologies developed in the BRICS or trading digital goods and services with these countries.

This book stems from the CyberBRICS project, which is the first initiative to develop a comparative analysis of the digital policies of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries. BRICS have been chosen as a focus not only because their digital policies are affecting more than 40% of the global population - i.e. roughly 3.2 billion individuals living in such countries - but also all the individuals and businesses willing to use technologies developed in the BRICS or trading digital goods and services with these countries.

In 2016, Germany's government presented its third cybersecurity strategy, which aims to strengthen the national cyber defence architecture, cooperation between the state and industry, and individual users’ agency. For many years, Germany has followed/adopted a preventive and engineering approach to cybersecurity, which emphasizes technological control of security threats in cyberspace over political, diplomatic and military approaches.

This volume features a variety of research projects at the intersection of mathematics and public policy. The topics included here fall in the areas of cybersecurity and climate change, two broad and impactful issues that benefit greatly from mathematical techniques. Each chapter in the book is a mathematical look into a specific research question related to one of these issues, an approach that offers the reader insight into the application of mathematics to important public policy questions.

The contemporary IT landscape is littered with various technologies that vendors claim will “solve” an organization’s cybersecurity challenges. These technologies are powerful and, in the right context, can be very effective. But misunderstood and misused, they either do not provide effective protection or do not protect the right things. This results in unnecessary expenditures, false beliefs of security, and interference with an organization’s mission.