Dear colleagues, partners, and friends of International Cybersecurity!
It was a busy second half of 2025! The International Cybersecurity Team at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg (IFSH) was all around, engaged in cybersecurity issues once again. In December, we are finally trying to catch our breath a little. It is just a moment, as we are launching new projects in 2026—there will be webinars, in-person workshops in Berlin, and preparations for our flagship conference, “Shaping Cybersecurity”.
We hope that the Christmas season will be an opportunity for you to enjoy some well-deserved rest, and that the new year will bring you much joy and excitement. Let’s hope there will be as few cyber-incidents as possible!
As always, we invite you to visit our weekly Substack newsletter “Cyber & Cognitive Conflict Compass (4C)”.
Vacancy at ICS
We are recruiting for the position of researcher! If you would like to join us, please check our advertisement and criteria. For this position we are looking for a scientist (m/f/d) with a background in either political science, computer science, or natural sciences with a strong interest in security policy and technological developments in the field of cyber foreign policy & cybersecurity. We would really appreciate communication skills and the ability to mediate effectively between science and policy! Sounds interesting? Please spread the word!
International Cybersecurity
One of the highlights of this 2nd half was our event on the limitations of active cyber defense postures during an IFSH “Kurz erklärt” roundtable at the Berlin office. The event was aimed at members of the Bundestag and their staff. Matthias, as the main speaker, argued that if Germany wants to develop an active response to cyber operations, it should develop a responsible, offensive cyber doctrine with clear and realistic strategic goals and strict protection of civilian and global commons infrastructure.
With great interest we have read a peace memorandum published by the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD). Our experts were grateful to participate in the consultation process for the document, and the individual and international dimensions of cybersecurity were included as one of the priorities for future action. We are delighted with this successful transfer of knowledge!
Matthias participated at the panel “Arms control in crisis: Technological and security challenges” at the Deutsche Stiftung Friedensforschung Konferenz in Osnabrück, he outlined limitations of arms control approaches for the cyber domain. Mateusz was the keynote speaker at a conference organized by EU InfoPoint Cyprus, where he discussed contemporary cyber threats. At an event bringing together cyber experts from Germany and Ukraine as part of the Partnership for Strengthening Cybersecurity project, he spoke about the relationship between cybersecurity and disinformation in Russia’s war against Ukraine. During this year’s “Protekt”, the leading conference for critical infrastructure protection, Matthias participated in a roundtable dubbed “Espionage & Zeitenwende” and explained the logic of Chinese and Russian cyber espionage operations. Lena gave a talk titled “Cybersecurity without Borders—What We Can Learn from Each Other” during the Politisches Bildungsforum Mecklenburg-Vorpommern from the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation. Mateusz conducted training sessions on cybersecurity for members of the German army as part of the Bildungswerk Bundeswehr projects.
It was also important for us to combine cybersecurity with the international dimension of security policy. Our experts participated in numerous international conferences, including the Warsaw Security Conference, Cyber Agora, AI, Data & Quantum Summit, and Berlin Security Conference. Matthias has joined the academic advisory board for the upcoming annual German IT Security Congress of the Federal Office for Information Security, while Mateusz has joined Hybrid Resilience Board from the cyberintelligence institute.
Hybrid Warfare, AI, and Cognitive Influence
Hybrid warfare and cognitive influence through AI became a major topic this year, which featured prominently in our weekly Substack newsletter. Mateusz continued his research in the field of deepfakes. His article “Deep fakes as a tool of political advertising. Can regulatory framework benefit from the ‘Ship of Theseus’ paradox?” was published in the prominent academic journal “Technology in Society”. In the Polish journal “Prawo Nowych Technologii” (New Technologies Law), he published a summary of his doctoral thesis, which he defended in July. Congratulations, by the way!
Matthias published an excellent take on enshitification and human robots that you really have to read. Mateusz also published an interesting OpEd for “The Loop” on the “reverse Brussels effect” and how criticism of EU regulations has been weaponized against liberal values. A matter that now seems more pressing than ever given the current geopolitical tensions.
Matthias collaborated with Deutschlandfunk for their podcast -series “Dark Agent – Im Netz der Geheimdienste [in the spider’s web of secret services]” which traces the story of operation “Triangulation”. He was also interviewed by “Und DAS glaubst du?!” a German Podcast on disinformation, he explained the origins of active measures and how the Internet amplified the problem. Matthias was interviewed by Zeit Online about drone incursions, cyberattacks against German infrastructures, and hybrid warfare tactics.
But it is not just the state’s duty to combat disinformation. Social institutions also matter: Mateusz published two op-eds on the role of the Catholic Church in combating disinformation and the importance of artificial intelligence in social teaching.
Our experts were also involved in the consultation process around the European Union’s AI Act. Mateusz participated in drafting comments to the European Commission, the process of which was led by Democracy Reporting International. Mateusz was the keynote speaker at a webinar organized by Future Shift Labs in India, where he discussed the risks associated with using large language models as psychotherapists. What happens to our data? What does the technical infrastructure of LLMs look like? These are questions we should be asking ourselves more and more often.
We wish you a safe and resilient 2026!
Warm regards,
Your International Cybersecurity Team at IFSH
Matthias, Mateusz, Lena and Florian