Soft Security Research Articles

ITRPL: An intelligent and trusted RPL protocol based on Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) is the de-facto routing standard in IoT networks. It enables nodes to collaborate and autonomously build ad-hoc networks modeled by tree-like destination-oriented direct acyclic graphs (DODAG). Despite its widespread usage in industry and healthcare domains, RPL is susceptible to insider attacks. Although the state-of-the-art RPL ensures that only authenticated nodes participate in DODAG, such hard security measures are still inadequate to prevent insider threats. This entails a need to integrate soft security mechanisms to support decision-making. This paper proposes iTRPL, an intelligent and behavior-based framework that incorporates trust to segregate honest and malicious nodes within a DODAG. It also leverages multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) to make autonomous decisions concerning the DODAG. The framework enables a parent node to compute the trust for its child and decide if the latter can join the DODAG. It tracks the behavior of the child node, updates the trust, computes the rewards (or penalties), and shares them with the root. The root aggregates the rewards/penalties of all nodes, computes the overall return, and decides via its ϵ-Greedy MARL module if the DODAG will be retained or modified for the future. A simulation-based performance evaluation demonstrates that iTRPL learns to make optimal decisions with time.

Realpolitik Returns to Berlin

Abstract “Never again” has been a mantra of German foreign policy since the end of World War II. Together with Ostpolitik it informs its approach toward the conflict in Ukraine. The discourse moved from “never again war originating from German soil” via justifying military interventions to prevent ethnic cleansing in the Balkans in 1998 with Joshka Fischer's injunction of “never again Auschwitz” to Olaf Scholz’ programmatic 2023 speech invoking “never again war of aggression in Europe.” This development is interpreted in the light of Realpolitik, providing the hard security means to defend the rule of law and democratic governance. External shocks have led Germany to expand its soft security arsenal as a civilian power and to embrace military means for liberal ends.

ASSOCIATE: A simulator for assessing soft security in the Cognitive Internet of Things

By augmenting the Internet of Things (IoT) with Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Cognitive Internet of Things (CIoT) has emerged, where intelligent objects autonomously sense, perceive, make decisions, and collaborate with minimal initial knowledge. Ensuring trust and security in such a cognitive society poses significant challenges. Soft security approaches, which leverage behavioral norms, have arisen as a promising solution to address these challenges. In this paper, we introduce ASSOCIATE, a modular and multi-layered tool designed for simulating and evaluating soft security models in the CIoT domain. ASSOCIATE applies a trust model to CIoT simulations and assesses the society’s soft security. The evaluation process encompasses society preparation, generation, trust model preparation, execution, and report generation. Input configuration files in the JSON format define simulation parameters, allowing the simulator to generate the requested society and conduct simulations. Evaluation results are presented through charts and graphs and saved in image and CSV formats. We demonstrate the tool’s functionality by enhancing the Santander dataset using the society generation module and analyzing various trust profiles. The proposed tool provides a valuable means of assessing the efficacy of soft security models in CIoT simulations, facilitating a comprehensive analysis of trust and security in CIoT systems.

The Black Sea Regional Security and Geostrategy Balance: A “New Cold War” Scenario

The Black Sea region is increasingly becoming a priority on the international agenda. In fact, a regional approach is emerging as actors understand that common problems need to be addressed jointly. Nevertheless, cooperation efforts are hampered by a number of factors, such as uneven economic and political development within and among countries, nationalist forces, and longstanding animosities between regional players. In this context, it is imperative to foster sound policies aimed at strengthening dialogue and cooperation so as to contain and ultimately resolve conflicts with peaceful means. However, there is little policy-oriented research on the challenges and opportunities for cooperation in the Black Sea region. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of terrorism and its dangers towards the Black Sea region. The work also describes the significance of international terrorism and its general definitions. Besides, the result and findings are based on theoretical studies and assumptions and the result of the analysis of the “Case Study” of the Black Sea region. Case study examines how the Black Sea region influences the spread of terrorism and what threats it poses for this region. Furthermore, the aspects of what makes the region important on international arena are analyzed and the existent and potential security issues are examined, as well as strategic importance of the region for the EU and NATO is analyzed even from academic framework – “Securitization” theory (Buzan, Wæver, De Wilde, 1998). The theory is based on security studies conceptual background and the background spectrum includes: the Copenhagen School and Critical security studies as the type (Ondrejcsak, 2014). Moreover, the Black Sea regional security and geopolitics are to be reviewed and scrutinized in several modalities in aegis of the Securitization theory, like military and economic sectors. The hypothesis provides provision that the Black Sea regional security has already became indispensable part of the contemporary international security system and determines tendency in geostrategic balance at global level. In addition to that the Black Sea Region has to contend with numerous threats of a conventional and non-conventional kind. These hard and soft security problems make the region volatile, insecure and unstable. That is why the region is very vital for inter-governmental organizations, dealing with military security (NATO case) and local actors in case of Georgia’s national security.

Status i znaczenie Trójmorza w konstrukcji współczesnej globalnej architektury bezpieczeństwa

This article covers a cross-sectional and updating reflection on the phenomena taking place in the security sphere of the region, the so-called Three Seas. The research subject of the article is the Three Seas Initiative format as a potential subjective keystone of the security of Central and Eastern Europe, treated taking into account historical and current events, as one of the foundations of not only the European or Euro-Atlantic, but also the global security architecture. The priority research goal was to present and analyze the progress and integration and institutional perspectives of the Three Seas Region, and thus an attempt to search for the status arrangements of this format, by analyzing this geopolitical space in the light of, above all, the concept of regional security complexes (but also, among others, geopolitical wedges, the influence of superpowers of the global balance of power). The findings presented in these investigations signal both attempts to comprehensively bind the region with interdependence, attempts at far-reaching rapprochement and co-creation of soft security architecture – in the form of development-progressing infrastructure, as well as pragmatic and conservative behavior, resulting from both the geopolitical dynamics and current national calculations of the Three Seas countries.

Introduction: resilient states versus resilient societies? Whose security does the EU protect through the Eastern Partnership in times of geopolitical crises?

ABSTRACT The European Union (EU) is making strong inroads into areas of security traditionally reserved to states. Security concerns are increasingly triggered by fundamental challenges, such as terrorism, climate change, migration, and many other ‘soft security issues’. Resilience has become a term of reference in the EU’s official foreign policy discourse, triggering an associated ‘resilience. Our contribution aims to analyse the ‘many faces of resilience’ in the EU’s Eastern Partnership (EaP) in relation to how the EU understands and seeks to enhance European security, mapping the different meanings the terms assume in the EU’s discourses and policy practices, and how they are related to one another. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has largely been viewed as an extraordinary resilience test for the EU and has brought back fundamental concerns on European security, including ‘hard’ military security issues. This has in turn raised questions not only on how the EU can ensure the resilience of its eastern partners and of itself, but also on the EU’s role in a rapidly changing global context of polarisation and fragmentation. In light of these challenges, the contributions to this special issue have only increased in relevance, pointing to pathways and opportunities for how the EU may reconcile the contradictory demands of fostering security and resilience for states and societies alike.

A comprehensive soft security model for Cognitive Internet of Things

The Cognitive Internet of Things (CIoT) is a rapidly evolving field that combines artificial intelligence (AI) with the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem. By augmenting IoT with AI, objects can sense, perceive, think, and make decisions independently with minimal initial knowledge. These cognitive objects form a society and work toward achieving their goals through cooperation. However, trust is a significant security challenge in such a society. To address this challenge, this paper proposes a soft security approach to model trust in CIoT using Collaborative Multi-Agent Systems (CMAS). Our model introduces an interactive, autonomous, and self-taught agent that can move toward a secure situation without needing a supervisor. We use a state machine to model an insecure ecosystem where agents can behave honestly, adversarially, neutrally, or hypocritically. We define inner trust as a combination of direct and indirect experiences and observations and global trust as the weighted average of inner trust and recommendations. Additionally, we employ the reinforcement learning algorithm to train agents. To evaluate our model, we developed a proprietary tool called ASSOCIATE and assessed our model using data from the Santander Smart City dataset and simulator-generated data. Our evaluations encompass three aspects: the success rate in achieving the goal, the recognition of agents’ behavior, and the quality of the diagnosis.

Modification of the reputation and trust model in the tasks of information security of grid systems for resistance to the threat of "malicious host groups"

In Grid-systems, the key idea is the joint use of resources, therefore there is a need for mutual trust between users and resource providers. In small grid systems, all participants are in a relationship of complete trust. For example, in the Ukrainian Academic Grid segment, all participants belong to the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and on this basis there is complete trust. But in larger Grid-systems, participants may often not be directly connected to each other, and there is a risk that one of the participants will turn out to be unscrupulous and malicious. Trust mechanisms are designed to reduce these risks. The main purpose of security mechanisms is to provide protection against malicious users and groups of persons. Traditional security methods usually protect resources from malicious influences by restricting access to authorized users. However, in most cases there is a need to protect the system and its components from those who provide resources and services within heterogeneous computing systems. Thus, there are a large number of problems in the field of security that cannot be solved within the framework of traditional approaches. Information providers can, for example, commit fraud by providing false and unreliable information, and traditional security mechanisms are unable to protect against this type of threat. On the other hand, systems of reputation and trust can provide protection against these risks. The distinction between these two approaches to information security was first described by Rasmussen and Jansson (1996), who used the term hard security to refer to traditional mechanisms such as authentication and access control, and the term soft security to refer to what they called public control mechanisms. in general, exemplified by reputation and trust systems.

Sensor Network Environments: A Review of the Attacks and Trust Management Models for Securing Them

Over the past decade, new technologies have driven the rise of what is being termed as the fourth industrial revolution. The introduction of this new revolution is amalgamating the cyber and physical worlds, bringing with it many benefits, such as the advent of industry 4.0, the internet of things, cloud technologies and smart homes and cities. These new and exciting areas are poised to have significant advantages for society; they can increase the efficiency of many systems and increase the quality of life of people. However, these emerging technologies can potentially have downsides, if used incorrectly or maliciously by bad entities. The rise of the widespread use of sensor networks to allow the mentioned systems to function has brought with it many security vulnerabilities that conventional “hard security” measures cannot mitigate. It is for this reason that a new “soft security” approach is being taken in conjunction with the conventional security means. Trust models offer an efficient way of mitigating the threats posed by malicious entities in networks that conventional security methods may not be able to combat. This paper discusses the general structure of a trust model, the environments they are used in and the attack types they are used to defend against. The work aims to provide a comprehensive review of the wide assortment of trust parameters and methods used in trust models. The work discusses which environments and network types each of these parameters and calculation methods would be suited to. Finally, a design study is provided to demonstrate how a trust model design will differ between two different industry 4.0 networks.

Soft Security Strategies to Enhance Nepal’s National Security

Due to the existing geo-location, geo-political advancement, and geo-strategic cum geo-political interests of powerful nations, the national security milieu of Nepal is constantly under a ‘state of flux’. The changing dynamics of the regional politics have also induced specific geo-political challenges to Nepal’s national security. Nepal has adopted an essence of “Amity with all and enmity with none” on its foreign policy, which is based on the spirit of its long standing ‘Non-Aligned Foreign Policy’. Since Nepal does not acquire any substantial intelligence, counter intelligence or strategic intelligence mechanisms, and has not been fortified with any defense technology yet; Nepal must foster ‘Soft Security Strategies’ that not only enhances its national security, but also help promote its national power capability. Based on various literature reviews, it suggest that the idea of reckoning the impact of soft security approach is an indicative defensive measure of addressing the contemporary security issues in national security. Nevertheless, the main objectives of this research article are to identify the emerging security threat, and assess the ‘Soft Security Strategies’ to enhance Nepal’s national security. This article discourses the geo-strategic prospects in conceiving national security, and explores the potential instruments of Nepal’s national power. The first part deals with apparent challenges to Nepal’s national security, and the second part deals with whether the existing ‘National Security Policy’ is aligned with its corresponding ‘National Security Strategy’. Finally, this paper aims to identify how the small power like Nepal can strengthen the instruments of national power and enhance national security.

From Soft Security to Hard Security in the Black Sea Region – Does the osce Fit?

Abstract The article analyses the security transformation in the Black Sea region through the prism of threats and approaches flux, making an additional focus on the osce role in the regional security affairs. It comes from the assumption that whereas security threats have been evolving, demonstrating its fluidity in terms of the soft and hard power perspective, the osce remained with the realm of 1975 in terms of its approaches towards the Black Sea security. The main research questions are: How has security perception changed in the Black Sea region for the last three decades? Whether the osce is a security actor in the Black Sea region? Can resilience-building be a smart security response to the current challenges?

Вопросы теории международного сотрудничества в сфере безопасности в рамках БРИКС

We analyze the problems of finding the most effective collective security mechanisms at various levels. The relevance of this topic is due to the priority of the tasks of modern states in the field of maintaining security. Issues of the theory of legal regulation of interstate relations are of particular relevance. The growing tension and other destructive tendencies in the modern world create many prerequisites for a possible transition to another level of international cooperation in the field of security. The development of new alliances and attempts to expand the role of existing interstate mechanisms actualize the issues of improving the formats of international cooperation in this area. BRICS, one of the key formats of multilateral cooperation aimed at creating their own model of interaction, continues to offer participants the opportunity to demonstrate not only an important geo-economic and humanitarian role, but also geopolitical significance in the world. We conclude that the growing influence of many factors of the new geopolitical reality determines the renewal of existing security strategies and the formation of new BRICS priorities. The need to expand the role of BRICS in this area, in which the influence of certain internal factors and especially the changing conjuncture of international relations on this process is still important, requires the use of the most flexible mechanisms and channels of cooperation aimed at both developing BRICS soft security mechanisms and on the further improvement of their own system of collective security as a whole. The above study and conclusions contribute to the development of the science of the theory of state and law in the field of regulation of international relations.

Canada’s and Russia’s Security and Defence Strategies in the Arctic: A Comparative Analysis

This comparative article reveals how the general focus of Canadian and Russian threat perceptions in the Arctic have shifted from a Cold War fixation on hard defence to accommodate soft security issues over the last three decades. Both countries now pay greater attention to threats and challenges stemming from climate change, security, and safety risks associated with resource development and increasingly accessible sea routes. Although concern about military conflict arising from Arctic disputes continues to frame some media discussions in both countries, most strategic analysts and academics have moved away from this line of argument. Instead, military functions now include assertion of Canadian and Russian sovereignty over their respective internal waters, as well as protection of resources in their exclusive economic zones and on and in extended continental shelves; protection of economic interests in the North, including mineral and bio-resources; prevention of potential terrorist attacks against critical industrial and state infrastructure; and dual-use functions, such as search and rescue operations, surveillance of air and maritime spaces, support to safe navigation, and mitigation of natural and human-made catastrophes. The authors argue that analysts should parse two forms of military modernization in the Arctic: one of capability development related to the global strategic balance, where the Arctic serves as a bastion or a thoroughfare; and a second intended to address emerging non-traditional security challenges. They contend that these modernization programs do not inherently upset the Arctic military balance and need not provoke a regional arms race.

A Comprehensive Soft Security Model for Cognitive Internet of Things

A Comprehensive Soft Security Model for Cognitive Internet of Things

Covid-19 and Quad’s “Soft” Reorientation

Quadrilateral Security Dialogue comprises a group of countries – the US, Japan, Australia, and India, that started maritime collaboration in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. The initiative lasted for a brief period before falling apart in 2008. The countries re-banded together in 2017 to consult on ensuring greater security and prosperity in a “free and open Indo-Pacific region”, and a rules-based order. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the group has been partnering on soft security aspects such as vaccine development and distribution. The paper suggests that this allows the group to become first movers in the areas of specific functional challenges. This paper looks at the role of health diplomacy in the region as a soft power tool. The theory is based on the works of Professor Joseph Nye who first coined the term 'soft power'. It focuses on the role of India in strategic altruism to enhance Quad’s strategic influence in the region. Expanding global vaccine supply is an example of reaching out to low- and middle-income countries. The paper argues that enhancing such cooperative mechanisms will allow Quad to balance its cooperative and competitive outlook in the region, linking its security with prosperity and development objectives.

Defence Expenditures of Nato Member States in the Times of Covid and the New US Administration: Selected Observations

Abstract NATO member states have been steadily increasing their levels of defence expenditures since 2015. In 2020, already ten member states met the NATO financial guidelines of spending at least 2% of their gross domestic product (GDP) for defence, including 20% for major equipment. In addition, many other countries were planning to achieve this target by 2024. There are two factors, however, which could slow down this process. First, economic recession as a follow up to COVID-19 will have a negative influence on the state budgets. Defence spending could start decreasing in nominal terms, followed by the challenges in meeting NATO financial guidelines. Second, while President Donald Trump put the Alliance's burden-sharing in the centre of his policy vis-à-vis European allies, the current US administration, represented by the Democratic Party, will put more emphasis on multilateral cooperation as well as soft security instruments, including development and diplomacy. In consequence, even if the White House is going to stand strongly with 2/20% rule, it might lessen the pressure on European allies, especially Germany, to significantly accelerate defence spending, seeing transatlantic relationship in a broader division of risks and responsibilities. In this article, it is suggested that due to the economic crisis of the 2020s and the shift in the policy of the US Government, NATO member states would slow down, in short and mid-term perspectives, the process of increasing defence expenditures.

The Digital Society in the 21st Century: Security Issue

Digitalization is thought to be a key driver of recent economic, cultural, political, and society transformations, with these changes entailing both positive and negative consequences. The negative ones include various risks and threats for information security of both society and state. As a result, there has been growing impetus to rethink the concept of security in the digital age. In this paper the discourse of security is discussed in terms of dichotomy between soft and hard power in a digitalized society. This discussion involves the following issues to be considered: 1) how this soft/hard range of power can be applied to the security problem; 2) how different information threats could be countered within the discourse of the state security; 3) how the soft security could be implemented in a digitalized society. Structured analysis, discourse analysis and conceptual approach are mainly involved to provide research methodology for the discussion. It should be noted that our research is conducted within theoretical framework established by B. Buzan, J. Nye, with the acknowledgment of the results obtained from the previous studies of the authors of this paper. The concept of security was productively discussed in terms of soft and hard power vocabulary. As a result of this discussion, soft security was interpreted as the measure of protecting something from harm in invisible, unobtrusive ways, whether hard security was designed to oppose challenges and threats and it is traditionally associated with methods of force. It was particularly established that hard security measures are likely to be applied in the military sector, while soft security measures are commonly used in a non-military context. Due to the concept of soft security has not yet been clearly defined and has not received recognition as a scientific term, it is argued that further investigation is demanded. Within this investigation, information security is interpreted as a special category of soft security. The relevant distinction between information security and cybersecurity is made, with the different frequency of using these terms in official discourses of different states being explained. It is also considered that the problems of soft security insurance cannot be solved at the level of individual states due to the transnational nature of digital technology, so it requires international responses. Therefore, establishing the normative force (i.e. elaboration of international rules and institutions) can be an effective measure, while an international exchange of experience in countering information threats seems to be very useful. Educational programs aimed both at creating qualified personnel in the field of digital technologies, as well as at the general public (improving information literacy), also contribute to ensuring the safety of society and the state.
 Keywords: information security, digital society, soft security, international relationships, cybersecurity

ПОЛИТИКА НЕВОЕННОЙ БЕЗОПАСНОСТИ В БОЛЬШОЙ ЕВРАЗИИ: СОВПАДАЮТ ЛИ ВЗГЛЯДЫ ВЕДУЩИХ ДЕРЖАВ?

The concept of Greater Eurasia is substantially a network concept inviting the multiplication of the number and quality of nods in Eurasian space. Presently it does not imply integration but proposes the growth of trade, investment, and cultural ties. The main impediment to the expansion of interlinks between the countries of the continent are differences in the approaches to security matters including soft security. This article focuses on security, and it will concentrate on the compatibility of soft security stances by most important Eurasian actors: China, Russia, and the European Union. Since military-political security is a particular and separate field, and because of the evolution of security concepts in recent years, the article will focus on non-military security, specifically on economic, technological, ecological, and societal security.

On the Trust and Trust Modeling for the Future Fully-Connected Digital World: A Comprehensive Study

With the fast development of digital technologies, we are running into a digital world. The relationship among people and the connections among things become more and more complex, and new challenges arise. To tackle these challenges, trust - a soft security mechanism - is considered a promising technology. Thus, in this survey, we do a comprehensive study on trust and trust modelling for the future digital world. We revisit the definitions and properties of trust, analyse the trust theories, and discuss their impact on digital trust modelling. We analyse the digital world and its corresponding environment where people, things, and infrastructure connect with each other. We detail the challenges that require trust in these digital scenarios. Under our analysis of trust and the digital world, we define different types of trust relationships and find out the factors that are needed to ensure a fully representative model. Next, to meet the challenges of digital trust modelling, comprehensive trust model evaluation criteria are proposed, and potential security and privacy issues of trust modelling are analysed. Finally, we provide a wide-ranging analysis of different methodologies, mathematical theories, and how they can be applied to trust modelling.

China’s response to the 2014–2016 Ebola crisis: Enhancing Africa’s soft security under Sino-US competition

The 2014–16 Ebola crisis in West Africa was China’s very first opportunity to demonstrate its willingness and ability to play a meaningful role in addressing public health emergencies of international concern. China’s decision to participate in the international response to the outbreak was part of an ambition to enhance its contribution to Africa’s security in general and health security in particular and to exert more influence on global norms. The specific role played by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), especially its Academy of Military Medical Sciences, in Sierra Leone and Liberia is part of an ongoing effort to increase China’s involvement in international humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations. It was the first time that it sent medical military teams to set up and operate infectious disease hospitals overseas. This participation also underscores the PLA’s crucial role in fighting epidemics overseas as well as at home, as the current COVID-19 pandemic illustrates. The Ebola crisis enables us to explore aspects of the PLA’s overseas missions, some of which are humanitarian and others which generally enhance China’s influence as a great power in Africa and in the world in the context of a growing Sino-US strategic competition.