Countering Hybrid Threats through Signals Intelligence and Big Data Analysis?

Together with Dr. Njord Wegge (Norwegian Defence University College, Oslo), Thorsten Wetzling discusses bulk collection of communication data as a tool to detect, and potentially also to deter, hybrid threats to our open societies. Given bulk collection’s high potential for excessive interference in ordinary people’s private lives, this intelligence gathering method carries with it substantial ethical and legal challenges.

This chapter sheds light on this dilemma, seeking to identify and discuss new challenges for states, posed by hybrid threats, while discussing how or if liberal Western democracies can or should utilize bulk collection of digital information when countering hybrid threats.