Cyber War and Cyber Peace

The Middle East is the region in which the first act of cyber warfare took place. Since then, cyber warfare has escalated and has completely altered the course of the MENA region's geopolitics.
With a foreword by top national security and cyber expert, Richard A. Clarke, this is the first anthology to specifically investigate the history and state of cyber warfare in the Middle East. It gathers an array of technical practitioners, social science scholars, and legal experts to provide a panoramic overview and cross-sectional analysis covering four main areas: privacy and civil society; the types of cyber conflict; information and influence operations; and methods of countering extremism online.
The book highlights the real threat of hacktivism and informational warfare between state actors and the specific issues affecting the MENA region. These include digital authoritarianism and malware attacks in the Middle East, analysis of how ISIS and the Syrian electronic army use the internet, and the impact of disinformation and cybercrime in the Gulf. The book captures the flashpoints and developments in cyber conflict in the past 10 years and offers a snapshot of the region's still-early cyber history. It also clarifies how cyber warfare may develop in the near- to medium-term future and provides ideas of how its greatest risks can be avoided.

Mike Sexton is a Fellow and Director of the Cybersecurity Initiative at the Middle East Institute, USA. He previously served as Senior Fellow and Associate Director of the Qatar-America Institute, as Senior Analyst at the Chertoff Group, and as Data Manager at the Chicago Project on Security and Threats. He has published articles and reports on cyber attacks, cryptography, and their implications for national security, human security, and international norms.
Eliza Campbell is the Associate Director for Impact and Innovation at the Middle East Institute Policy Center, and a fellow with the Middle East Institute Cyber Program. She was previously a researcher in technology and human rights at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University, USA, a 2017-18 Fulbright researcher in Bulgaria, and has worked in the humanitarian field in Jordan.

1. Conduct of Code: A Historical Overview of Cyberspace in MENA, Paul Kurtz, TruSTAR Technology, USA; & Aaron Ach, Good Harbor Security Risk Management, USA 2. Cyber Insurance as Cyber Diplomacy, Asaf Lubin, Indiana University Bloomington, USA 3. Industrial Cyber Attacks in the Middle East and International Consequences, Selena Larson, Dragos, USA & Sergio Caltagirone, Dragos, USA 4. Influence Operations in the Middle East and the Prohibition on Intervention, Ido Kilovaty, Yale Law School, USA 5. State-Sanctioned Hacktivism: The Syrian Electronic Army, Evan Kohlmann, Flashpoint, USA & Alex Kobray, Flashpoint, USA 6. Disinformation in the Gulf, James Shires, Leiden University, The Netherlands 7. Operation Glowing Symphony: The Missing Piece in the U.S. Online Counter-ISIS Campaign, Michael Martelle, National Security Archive, USA & Audrey Alexander, West Point's Combating Terrorism Center, USA 8. The Rise of Digital Authoritarianism in the Middle East, Mohammed Soliman, Middle East Institute, USA 9. A Battle of Two Pandemics: Coronavirus and Digital Authoritarianism in the Arab World, Sahar Khamis, University of Maryland, College Park & Middle East Institute, USA 10. Toward a Safer Regional Cyberspace, Mike Sexton, Middle East Institute, USA & Eliza Campbell, Middle East Institute, USA