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 Experts Participate in China-U.S. Track II Dialogue on Nuclear Security
Experts from NTI and the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association (CACDA) gathered at the State Nuclear Technology Centre (SNSTC) outside of Beijing for the first in-person meeting of the China-U.S. Track II Dialogue on Nuclear Security since the COVID-19 pandemic.
NTI Hosts 8th Meeting of Cyber-Nuclear Forum
Nearly 40 cybersecurity experts from nuclear facilities in more than 14 countries discussed practical steps for strengthening cybersecurity at nuclear facilities during the eighth meeting of NTI’s Cyber-Nuclear Forum.
NTI Highlights Nuclear Effects Research at the Second Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
NTI Program Officer Patricia Jaworek joined a panel discussion on the devastating humanitarian effects of nuclear weapons and shared her research on the subject.
NTI Releases New Paper on Global Effects of Nuclear Conflict: Implications for Nuclear Policymaking, Then and Now
The paper highlights the need for renewed attention to the catastrophic effects of nuclear conflict as a crucial step toward reducing the risk of nuclear use.
Global Effects of Nuclear Conflict: Implications for Nuclear Policymaking, Then and Now
This paper highlights the need for renewed attention to the catastrophic effects of nuclear conflict as a crucial step toward reducing the risk of nuclear use.