Category Archives: Call for Articles

Project Trident Call for Articles: The Future of Maritime Cybersecurity

By Jimmy Drennan

Submissions Due: Extended to February 22, 2021
Week Dates: March 1-5, 2021
Article Length: 1000-3000 words
Submit to: Content@cimsec.org

CIMSEC is partnering with Cyber Nation Central to launch the latest Project Trident call for articles, this time on the impact of cybersecurity on future international maritime security. Cyber Nation Central “focuses on industry and government leadership in cyberspace defense, and its mission is to create cyber-secure renditions of physical nations for the U.S. and its global partners.” Cyber Nation Central seeks to spur cybersecurity innovation and bring practical transformation, think tank expertise, and strategic advice to corporations and governments to solve the most pressing problems in national cybersecurity infrastructure, specifically the autonomous and connected systems in transportation, defense, and healthcare sectors.

The December 2020 reveal of a major cyberattack on U.S. federal networks reaffirmed the ever-growing importance of cybersecurity. The need to defend computer networks against attack now influences almost every aspect of the global political and economic landscape, and the maritime sector is no exception.

Maritime networks are inherently distributed and vulnerable to attack. One cybersecurity firm noted after a year of investigation that “shipping is so insecure we could have driven off in an oil rig.” Criminals, terrorists, and nation-states are taking note. In the last three years, cyberattacks on maritime infrastructure and shipping have increased 900 percent. Norwegian Cruise Line and Carnival Corporation each suffered network breaches in 2020; the cruise industry is a particularly desirable target due to the amount of personal and financial data they carry. Shipping companies have already incurred hundreds of millions of dollars in losses resulting from computer virus infections, and some speculate that the financial impact of coordinated attacks on certain ports could rise into the billions.

Cybersecurity has rapidly become an essential element of naval warfare as well. Not only must navies be able to defend their own networks, but they must also maintain offensive and maneuver capabilities in the cyber domain. Given the dependence of modern warships on electronic data and networks, achieving maritime superiority in conflict may soon be impossible without first achieving cyber superiority.

Authors are invited to write on any topic related to maritime cybersecurity, particularly the following:

1. What investments, infrastructure, and technological innovation should governments and private entities pursue to achieve maritime cybersecurity

2. How could cybersecurity shape future naval conflict and naval force development?

3. Given the global rise in cyber whaling,1 what measures should be taken to “cybersecure” maritime senior leaders and executives from threats specifically targeting them as the holders of the most sensitive “digital crown jewels” (data, access, etc.)? What domino effect could this method of cyber warfare cause in maritime security?

4. Is cyber “security” even possible in the burgeoning cyber “arms race”?

5. With cyber-hacking becoming less and less prevalent as a technical problem and, instead, 97 percent of hacking crimes done via social engineering, what behavioral training should maritime entities undergo to foster a culture of cybersecurity?

6. What maritime cybersecurity policy areas should lawmakers rethink or consider introducing, and to what end?

7. What improvements could be made in cybersecurity technology distribution speed and effectiveness? How can the cyber supply chain be improved?

8. What cybersecurity recruitment and talent management strategies should maritime entities pursue?

Authors are invited to answer these questions and more as we consider the future of maritime cybersecurity. Send all submissions to Content@cimsec.org.

Jimmy Drennan is the President of CIMSEC. Contact him at President@cimsec.org

Endnotes

1. Phishing that targets the most senior stakeholders of organizations through their (1) professional networks/devices, (2) personal networks/devices containing professional information, and (3) families’ home networks/devices, allowing hackers to exploit the information to breach the broader organizational network.

Call for Articles: A Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority

By Dmitry Filipoff

Submissions Due: February 19, 2020
Week Dates: February 24-28, 2020
Article Length: 1000-3500 words
Submit to: Content@cimsec.org

U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gilday recently released a Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority, which identifies primary lines of effort for how the U.S. Navy will look to evolve. In this time of great power competition and unprecedented technological change, the Navy will be greatly challenged to pace the evolving threat environment, and this Design seeks to meet that challenge. As the Design proclaims, “Modern naval operations are in rapid transition, demanding the integrated, multi-domain capabilities of our fleets. We will respond to this transition with urgency.”

The Design ambitiously outlines serious changes and reassessments on the course of the Navy. Among them include an assessment of the Optimized Fleet Response Plan to evaluate the Navy’s force generation model, a pledge to integrate more closely with the Marine Corps, and the creation of a Warfighting Development Campaign Plan. Additionally, the Design emphasizes how the Navy should prioritize fleet-level warfare through the regular execution of large-scale exercises, and how cyber and information warfare must become more deeply ingrained in the Navy.

CNO FRAGO 012019

 

Authors are encouraged to write about these lines of effort and others contained in the Design, the underlying assumptions that may need reevaluation, and how the Design could best serve to guide the evolution of the Navy. Please send all submissions to Content@cimsec.org.

Dmitry Filipoff is CIMSEC’s Director of Online Content. Contact him at Content@cimsec.org.

Featured Image: PACIFIC OCEAN (Dec. 4, 2019) An MV-22B Osprey assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 165 takes off from the amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island (LHD 8). Makin Island is conducting routine operations in the eastern Pacific. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jeremy Laramore)

Call for Articles: Short Story Fiction

By Dmitry Filipoff

Stories Due: December 2, 2019
Week Dates: December 9–13, 2019

Story Length: 1000-5000 Words
Submit to: Content@cimsec.org

Fiction has long served as a powerful means for exploring hypotheticals and envisioning alternatives. As a regular annual feature, CIMSEC will be publishing a week’s worth of short stories that look to explore conflict and competition through fiction. 

Authors can explore the future, and flesh out concepts for how potential conflicts may play out. They could probe the past, and use historical fiction as a device to explore alternative histories. Authors are invited to submit their stories along these lines and more as they craft their compelling narratives.

Note: This call for articles has since passed. View the results of this Fiction Week here.

View previous CIMSEC Fiction Weeks below:

Short Story Fiction Week 2018
Short Story Fiction Week 2017
CIMSEC and Atlantic Council Fiction Contest 2016

Dmitry Filipoff is CIMSEC’s Director of Online Content. Contact him at Content@cimsec.org.

Featured Image: “Fly” by Dmitry Vishnevsky, via Artstation

Call for Articles: Integrated Naval Force Structure Topic Week

By Dmitry Filipoff

Submissions Due: November 4, 2019
Week Dates: November 11-15, 2019
Article Length: 1000-3500 words
Submit to: Content@cimsec.org

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps are initiating an Integrated Force Structure Assessment to help chart the course of their future composition.

This force structure assessment process is unique in its emphasis on unmanned platforms by considering “an optimal force mix that includes Large Unmanned Surface Vessels, Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vessels, and Expeditionary Advance Bases.” 

It may also look to overhaul the Marine Corps’ force structure, where in reference to its longstanding use of large, expensive platforms the new Marine Commandant Gen. Berger wrote in his planning guidance that they must “seek the affordable and plentiful at the expense of the exquisite and few when conceiving of the future amphibious portion of the fleet.”

The assessment hopes to nest future force structure within emerging warfighting concepts such as Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO), Littoral Operations in a Contested Environment (LOCE), and Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO). (Click below to read the memo from the Navy’s Chief of Naval Operations and the Marine Commandant.)

What ships and platforms will best serve the national security interests of the nation, capture technological opportunities for advantageous capabilities, and meet the challenge of great power competition? Authors are invited to answer these questions and more. Please send all submissions to Content@cimsec.org

Dmitry Filipoff is CIMSEC’s Director of Online Content. Contact him at Content@cimsec.org

Featured Image: PACIFIC OCEAN (Jan. 20, 2018) Amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6), front, transits the Pacific Ocean next to Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70). (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Sean M. Castellano/Released) 180120-N-BL637-0045