A Magic Recipe or Black Box: Investigating the Narrative of Resilience for Cyber Crises

Abstract

Emerging digital technologies and the accompanying socio-economic transformation have made cybersecurity crises an integral part of the era of poly-crises. Furthermore, the evolving characteristics of threat actors and attack methodologies in cybersecurity, along with the complexities of risk modeling and the problems of forecasting attack impacts, have rendered uncertainty and insecurity in this domain nearly normative. Within this framework, cyber resilience has become one of the most prominent paradigms in cybersecurity over the past decade, emphasizing survival and adaptation capabilities during crises. However, cyber resilience is not a single solution, technology, or application; instead, it is a multi-layered perspective that requires the balanced implementation of socio-technical solutions. In this context, by highlighting its differences from cybersecurity, this study aims to explore the concept of cyber resilience in detail and examine it specifically within the dimensions of people, process, and technology approaches for the different phases of cybersecurity crises. Additionally, we address how cybersecurity can be made more accessible, flexible, agile, and inclusive to enhance cyber resilience in the era of poly-crises.