HT 2021
2021 IEEE CSR Workshop on Hybrid Threats (HT)
The Joint Communication to the European Parliament and the Council “Joint Framework on countering hybrid threats – a European Union response” (European Commission, 2016) defines hybrid threats as a “mixture of coercive and subversive activities, conventional and unconventional methods (i.e. diplomatic, military, economic, technological), which can be used in a coordinated manner by state or non-state actors to achieve specific objectives while remaining below the threshold of formally declared warfare”.
Recently, the Joint Research Centre and the Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats presented “The landscape of Hybrid Threats: a conceptual model” in order to characterize the problem of hybrid threats and operationalize the concept. According to this model, hybrid threats exhibit specific characteristics: a threat actor uses one or more tools (e.g. cyber operations, disinformation campaigns) to target one or more domains (e.g. cyber, economy, society) or the interfaces between domains, thereby exploiting vulnerabilities or opportunities and maintaining credible deniability while achieving defined goals. This typically renders hybrid threats difficult to identify, detect, attribute and counteract.
A hybrid threat is always a combination of several attack vectors. The cyber dimension is often a very important one, while not all cyber operations are hybrid. This workshop aims at providing clarity on this subject and it offers room for
› covering the whole spectrum of risk and resilience management with respect to hybrid threats;
› presenting the most recent research analyzing the exploitation of vulnerabilities and the development of detection and attribution strategies;
› discussing on methods to improve the response to hybrid threats, for instance through exercises.
Topics of Interest
Prospective authors are encouraged to submit previously unpublished contributions from a broad range of topics, which include but are not limited to the following:
› conceptualization of hybrid threats in the cyberspace;
› risk and resilience management against hybrid threats, including mitigation and recovery measures;
› detection and attribution of hybrid threats: data fusion, open-source intelligence, forensics;
› cyber-threats in the context of hybrid attacks: cyber as a domain, cyber as a tool;
› hybrid threats involving critical infrastructures and cyber-physical systems;
› countering disinformation in the cyberspace – an important aspect for increasing resilience against hybrid threats;
› case studies covering the above-mentioned topics.
Important Dates
Paper submission deadline: April 19, 2021
Authors’ notification: May 3, 2021
Camera-ready submission: May 10, 2021
Early registration deadline: May 31, 2021
Workshop date: July 27, 2021
Submission Guidelines
The workshop’s proceedings will be published by IEEE and will be included in IEEE Xplore. The guidelines for authors, manuscript preparation guidelines, and policies of the IEEE CSR conference are applicable to HT 2021 workshop. Please visit the authors’ instructions page for more details. When submitting your manuscript via the conference management system, please make sure that the workshop’s track 2T7 HT is selected in the Topic Areas drop down list.
Workshop Committees
Workshop chairs
Georgios Giannopoulos, European Commission, Joint Research Centre (IT)
Hanna Smith, European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (FI)
Organizing committee
Evaldas Bruze, Lithuanian Cybercrime Center of Excellence (LT)
Luca Galbusera, European Commission, Joint Research Centre (IT)
Georgios Giannopoulos, European Commission, Joint Research Centre (IT)
Rainer Jungwirth, European Commission, Joint Research Centre (IT)
Igor Linkov, Carnegie Mellon University (US)
Hanna Smith, European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (FI)
Publicity chair
Rainer Jungwirth, European Commission, Joint Research Centre (IT)
Contact us
Program committee
Valentina Dragos, ONERA (FR)
Bruce Forrester, Defence Research and Development Canada, Government of Canada (CA)
Darko Galinec, Zagreb University of Applied Sciences (HR)
Constantinos Hadjisavvas, European Defence Agency (BE)
Stefano Marrone, University of Campania (IT)
Ruben Arcos Martin, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (ES)
Isto Mattila, Laurea University of Applied Sciences (FI)
Wojciech Piotrowicz, Hanken School of Economics (FI)
Marios Polycarpou, University of Cyprus (CY)
Stefan Pickl, Universität der Bundeswehr München (DE)
Georgios Theodoridis, European Commission, Joint Research Centre (IT)
Marios Thoma, European Security and Defence College (BE)