Preface v
Introduction ix

Chapter 1 Who Is Under Attack and Why? 1
What Are Civil Society Organizations? 4
In Which Context Are They Operating Today? 5
Why Is Civil Society Under Attack? 5
Impacts on Victims and Targets 17
Recent Developments 20

Chapter 2 Resilience: Anatomy of Attacks 31
Phishing: The Most Prevalent Threat 33
Ransomware: A Growing Threat to Civil Society 48
Spyware: Intimidation as Censorship 64
CEO Fraud: The Impersonation Technique 82
Information Manipulation: Eroding Trust and Undermining Missions 92
Weaponization of Emerging Technologies: AI 111
Additional Resources 113

Chapter 3 Accountability: State Responsibility and the Actors Behind the Attacks 137
The Premise: States Have a Double Duty 139
The Temptation: Law as Theater 140
The Duty to Protect: What It Actually Means 141
The Duty to Do No Harm: The Part States Avoid 142
The UN Cybercrime Convention: A Perfect Example of "Framework vs. Operationalization" 143
Responsibility Without Attribution: The Trick States Rely On 144
When States Fail: How Impunity Becomes a Policy Choice 149
What "Responsibility" Should Look Like When Operationalized 150
Opening the Door: The Attacker Ecosystem and Why Accountability Fails 151

Chapter 4 Solutions: A Security Framework Adapted to CSOs 175
Adapting the NIST Framework to CSOs 177
Empower: Anticipating, Managing, and Expanding 182
Enable: Securing Resources and Building Capacity 206
Identify: Assessing Risks, Vulnerabilities, and the Threat Landscape 215
Protect: Data, Technology, and Talent 223
Detect: Monitoring and Intelligence 233
Respond and Recover: Collaboration, Follow-Up, and Rehabilitation 241

Methodology 257
Glossary 259
Acknowledgments 263
About the Author 265
Index 267