Matthias wrote a paper for Internationale Politik (German language only) where he diagnosed, that cybersecurity strategies are increasingly shifting from purely defensive toward more offensive postures, as exemplified by countries like France, Finland, and the Netherlands expanding their military cyber commands. In contrast, the German strategic debates lacks behind. Experience shows that a reactive, “ultima ratio” approach is ineffective; instead, a strategy of “constant contact,” involving persistent infiltration and monitoring of adversary infrastructure, is necessary for effective cyber defense. Successful cyber powers adopt a “campaign mindset,” prioritizing the long-term, analytic observation of adversary behavior over short-term disruptions like server takedowns, integrating offensive knowledge into defensive improvements and cross-agency collaboration. True deterrence in cyberspace is elusive, so the prevailing strategy should be to deny attackers strategic gains—through deception, robust backup, and resilience—while shaping operations transparently, ethically, and with interdisciplinary oversight to serve and strengthen overall defense. 

Read the article here. 

Photo credits: Internationale Politik