The SIPRI Update for May 2013 is out now—read it online, or subscribe to receive the SIPRI Update in your inbox each month.
In the latest SIPRI Essay, SIPRI Associated Research Fellow Vincent Boulanin discusses the challenges posed by cyberweapons and surveillance technologies. Boulanin writes:
When revelations about Stuxnet, a computer virus designed specifically to sabotage Iran’s nuclear programme, made the headlines in June 2010, cybersecurity shot to the top of many countries’ national security agendas. Many countries announced that they would beef up their offensive capabilities in cyberspace, inspiring fresh discussion about the development, use and control of cyberweapons and of surveillance technologies in cyberspace. What are the implications of these technologies for arms production and arms control? How realistic is it to try to control them through traditional arms control mechanisms?