Addressing Cyber-Nuclear Security Threats
What if a hacker shut down the security system at a highly sensitive nuclear materials storage facility, giving access to terrorists seeking highly enriched uranium to make a bomb?
About
The Scientific and Technical Affairs Program seeks to capture the opportunities new and emerging technologies afford while working to reduce the potential for and impact of their malevolent use.
We work with leading experts and partners to ensure a future in which new technologies and approaches—from monitoring technologies to artificial intelligence—will reduce nuclear proliferation risks, enhance future arms control agreements, improve cybersecurity of critical systems, and build transparency among nuclear weapons states.
Our recent work:
- Outlines the risks and opportunities of adding digital and automated tools in nuclear weapons modernization
- Exposes nuclear proliferation risks with machine learning and publicly available information
- Builds relationships and shares best practices among cyber professionals and nuclear facilities around the world.
Program efforts are guided by a high-level Science and Technology Advisory group.
Projects
Cyber-Nuclear Forum
Building Global Cybersecurity Capacity at Nuclear Facilities
Cyber-Nuclear Weapons Study Group
Developing Options to Address Cyber Threats to Nuclear Weapons
Detecting Proliferation Risks through Public Data
Open, increasingly digital data combined with tools for data analytics can supplement traditional nonproliferation efforts by detecting illicit proliferation
Emerging Technology Risks and Rewards for U.S. Nuclear Modernization
For as long as we have nuclear weapons, the United States must ensure they are safe, secure, and reliable.
U.S.-Russia Cyber-Nuclear Weapons Dialogue
As cyber capabilities evolve and nuclear weapons systems become increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks, the risk increases that nuclear weapons will be used by accident or miscalculation.
Understanding the Global Effects of Nuclear Conflict in the 21st Century
The damaging effects of the light, heat, blast, and radiation caused by a nuclear explosion have been known to scientists since the end of the Second World War
Program Staff
News & Analysis
NTI Resources on the War in Ukraine
As the war in Ukraine continues, destroying cities and causing the worst humanitarian crisis in Europe in a generation, NTI’s policy experts are fanning out across the news media to discuss the implications of Putin’s actions
New Video Breaks Down the Cyber-Nuclear Threat
A new video featuring national security expert Richard A. Clarke explains the cyber-nuclear threat and why we should all be worried about hackers gaining access to our nuclear weapon systems.
NTI Experts Warn of Inherent Cyber Risks Associated with Nuclear Weapons and Modernization
Erin Dumbacher, senior program officer of NTI’s Scientific and Technical Affairs Program, and Lynn Rusten, vice president of NTI’s Global Nuclear Policy Program, call attention to the cyber risks inherent in nuclear weapons systems and modernization efforts in a recent article published by The National Interest, “Nuclear Weapons Must Be Safe from Cyber Threats.”
NTI Convenes Conference on Global Effects of Nuclear Weapons
More than 40 researchers and scientists with expertise in nuclear security, climate science, agriculture and food security, development policy, engineering, international relations, and economics gathered in person and virtually for a hybrid conference on global nuclear effects convened by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) on June 1-2, 2022.
NTI Hosts Cyber-Nuclear Forum meeting in France
More than 40 experts from nuclear operators across 15 countries and several international organizations worked to develop practical steps to strengthen cybersecurity at nuclear facilities during the fifth meeting of NTI’s Cyber-Nuclear Forum earlier this month.