S3 Episode 11: Exploring hybrid threats with Alex Romero

In this episode, David Backovsky interviews Alex Romero, visiting professor at Sciences Po and founder of Alto Intelligence. They discuss all things hybrid threats – what they are, their history and how the rise of subthreshhold operations challenges the geopolitical status quo. Listen now to find out more!

Audition Template: 1 Mono Host track (with Speech Volume Leveler), 1 Mono Interview track (with Speech Volume Leveler), 1 Stereo Sound FX with effects, 1 Stereo Music Bed track. 44.1k, 16 bit, Stereo Master.

In this episode David Backovsky interviews Professor Nadiya Kostyuk of Carnegie Mellon University about the cyber elements of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They discuss what the expectations were before the war, what this special empirical case study teaches us about cyber conflict and much more. Tune in and find out more!

In today's episode David Backovsky sits down with Rumman Chowdhury, CEO of Humane Intelligence and the United States Science Envoy for Artificial Intelligence to discuss the recent developments in AI systems and how to ensure that AI is developed in a secure and responsible way. David and Rumman touch on many aspects of AI, including the anthropomorphisation that it falls victim to, AI red-teaming and much more.

Are you interested in better understanding spyware and the digital surveillance industry? Berlin Security Beat host David Backovsky interviews two experts from Amnesty International's Security Lab, Elina Castillo Jiménez & Rebecca White. Together they discuss what unlawful digital surveillance entails, the great cost that its use has on its victims and what can be done about it. The episode also includes advice on how to better protect oneself from possible intrusions.

In this episode David Backovsky interviews with Anita Gohdes, Professor of International and Cyber Security at the Centre for International Security and the Hertie School. Anita has recently published, "Repression in the Digital Age: Surveillance, Censorship, and the Dynamics of State Violence" with Oxford University Press. They sat down to discuss what digital state repression looks like, how it operates, and how it complements traditional forms of violent state repression. Tune in to find out more!

Would you like like to better understand the role of the United States in cyber diplomacy? This episode features William Klein, a former U.S. State Diplomat with over two decades of experience with a special focus on China. William and David discuss a range of issues including the evolution of U.S. cyber foreign policy, China, export controls, digital arms control and more. William Klein is now a consulting partner with FGS Global, a strategic advisory consultancy and is a Senior Associate with CSIS.

Do you want to learn more about how cyber policy institutions were built across the last two decades? In our newest episode David Backovsky of the Berlin Security Beat interviews Heli Tiirmaa-Klaar, Director of the Digital Society Institute at the ESMT in Berlin, on what it was like to build up cyber policy & diplomacy institutions across the Ministry of Defense of Estonia, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia, NATO and the European External Action Service.

In the second episode of our two-parter on cyber threats we focus on cybercrime. David Backovsky talks to Rutger Leukfeldt, Professor of Governing Cybercrime at Leiden University and Senior Researcher at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement. We discuss everything from hackers to criminal nexuses to hacktivists, ransomware and social engineering. How cyber criminals can differ wildly, ranging from organized groups with corporate structures who provide cybercrime as a service to opportunistic cyber “street gangs”. Tune in to find out more.

In the first half of our two-parter on cyber threats we'll be discussing cyber threat intelligence (CTI) and state actors with one of Berlin's leading threat intelligence experts, Jiro Minier. We cover the basics of CTI and then explore the geopolitical side with China as a case study of how state threat actor nexuses operate. Jiro Minier is Lead, Threat Intelligence Research and Analysis at the DCSO in Berlin. He is a former fellow of the Centre for International Security and the European Cyber Conflict Research Initiative (ECCRI).