Investigating cyber conflict is enormously difficult. The domain is complex, quality data are sparse, international affairs are shrouded in secrecy, and despite its seeming ubiquity, cyber power has only recently entered the battlefield. In the face of these challenges, we must rise to meet the challenges of cybersecurity research by deploying creative methods that collect verifiable and probatory data, and which allow for predictive models of cyber behavior. Against this backdrop, our special issue offers a vision of cybersecurity research that embraces a culture of rigorous inquiry based on theoretically robust, and policy relevant investigation. We highlight two key features. First, research at the intersection of cybersecurity and political science must incorporate the human dimension of cyber conflict. A human security approach to cybersecurity places people as the primary objects of security and recognizes that individual-level analyses can shed light on macro-level trends. Second, cyber research must adopt rigorous, empirical methods. We embrace a broad tent of empirical data collection techniques – spanning qualitative and quantitative, experimental, and observational research. What is integral is that all scholarship abides by the highest standards of replicability and falsifiability. The articles contained in this special issue collectively form a proof of concept that expands the horizons of cybersecurity research from a substantive viewpoint (adding a human dimension to the prevalent military/strategic analyses), and from a methodological perspective (propounding the importance of empirical scrutiny). Together, these 10 pieces of scholarship collectively affirm that there is now a critical mass of substantively diverse and empirically rigorous research in the field of cybersecurity, and that we as a community are capable of making bold, theoretically grounded, and empirically tested claims that verify how cyber power is or is not altering the nature of peace, conflict and international relations.

中文翻译：

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简介：网络冲突——从猜测到调查

调查网络冲突非常困难。该领域很复杂，高质量数据稀少，国际事务笼罩在秘密之中，尽管网络力量看似无处不在，但直到最近才进入战场。面对这些挑战，我们必须通过部署创造性的方法来应对网络安全研究的挑战，这些方法收集可验证和证明性的数据，并允许建立网络行为的预测模型。在此背景下，我们的特刊提供了网络安全研究的愿景，拥抱基于理论稳健和政策相关调查的严格探究文化。我们强调两个关键特征。首先，网络安全和政治学的交叉研究必须纳入网络冲突的人为因素。网络安全的人类安全方法将人作为安全的主要对象，并认识到个人层面的分析可以揭示宏观层面的趋势。其次，网络研究必须采用严谨的实证方法。我们采用广泛的经验数据收集技术——涵盖定性和定量、实验和观察研究。重要的是，所有学术都遵守可复制性和可证伪性的最高标准。本特刊中包含的文章共同构成了概念验证，从实质性角度（在流行的军事/战略分析中添加人的维度）和方法论角度（提出实证审查的重要性）拓展了网络安全研究的视野）。这 10 项学术成果共同证实，网络安全领域目前存在大量实质性多样化、实证严谨的研究，并且我们作为一个社区有能力提出大胆、有理论依据且经过实证检验的主张，以验证网络力量如何改变或不改变和平、冲突和国际关系的性质。