Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation

FDD’s Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation (CCTI) at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies seeks to advance U.S. prosperity and security through technology innovation while countering cyber threats that seek to diminish it. CCTI promotes a greater understanding within the U.S. government, private sector, and allied countries of the threats and opportunities to national security posed by the rapidly expanding technological environment.

Technology holds the promise of greater inclusivity and productivity for American society. At the same time, however, the cyber domain is providing new avenues for state and non-state actors to undermine our national security and democracy, pilfer intellectual property from private companies, and steal personal identifiable information. To capitalize on these opportunities and address these challenges, CCTI combines rigorous academic research of adversaries’ strategies and capabilities with scientific experimentation and interdisciplinary study to unlock technological, governance, and policy solutions.

CCTI expands upon the work of FDD’s project on Cyber-Enabled Economic Warfare, which originally established FDD’s expertise on the intersection between cyber operations and economic warfare, where technological developments are being adapted to cause economic damage. Through their actions, both the U.S. and its adversaries are shaping the battlespace and international norms. Since its beginning, FDD’s CEEW project has zeroed in on how America’s authoritarian, undemocratic adversaries are using cyber means to undermine the foundation of American strength – our economic wherewithal – as a means to weaken us politically and militarily.

The project has produced a series of studies on the cyber strategies and capabilities of Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran and continues to provide analysis of America’s most potent cyber adversaries and offer policy recommendations to defend U.S. national security. FDD’s cyber-enabled economic warfare project aims to promote a greater understanding within the U.S. government, private sector, and allied countries of the threats and opportunities that the new technological environment poses and assist policymakers develop and implement a winning strategy for the United States within this domain.

CCTI also features the efforts of FDD’s Transformative Cyber Innovation Lab (TCIL) which bridges the gap between technology, policy, and governance to drive revolutionary, society-wide improvement in cyber resilience. TCIL nurtures technologically feasible, testable pilot projects which begin to solve some of the hardest cyber problems afflicting society and the national security industrial base. TCIL is dedicated to converting the urgent needs faced by our society, our economy, and our defense establishment into transformative solutions for those vulnerabilities.

Dr. Samantha Ravich, founder of FDD’s cyber-enabled economic warfare project, serve as chairman of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation and TCIL. She also serves as vice chair of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board and as a member of the congressionally-mandated Cyberspace Solarium Commission. Dr. Michael Hsieh serves as executive director of TCIL, and Annie Fixler is the Deputy Director of CCTI.

FDD’s Chief Executive and expert on economic warfare Mark Dubowitz and Juan Zarate, chairman of FDD’s Center on Economic and Financial Power and former deputy national security adviser for combatting terrorism serve as senior advisors to the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation.

CCTI is one of FDD’s centers on American power, which also include FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power and FDD’s Center on Economic and Financial Power.