Expert Bio

Mary Brooks is a researcher, writer and documentarian at the nexus of foreign policy, conflict, cybersecurity, and technology. She was previously a Fellow in the Cybersecurity and Emerging Threats program at the R Street Institute, where she wrote on a number of cutting-edge issues, including supply chain policy and novel methods of measuring trends in cybersecurity, and has published work in Lawfare, The Hill, and Morning Consult.

Prior to that, she worked as the associate producer of the Emmy-nominated HBO documentary The Perfect Weapon—an exploration of how the use of cyber weapons by both states and private actors is changing global power. She is currently also serving as a consulting producer on a forthcoming HBO documentary about the Biden Administration’s efforts to deal with national security challenges.

Mary graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in Government and a language certificate in Arabic.

Expertise

• Science and Technology
• Security and Defense

Wilson Center Project

What’s Old Is New – and Other Lessons about “Cyber War” from the Russo- Ukraine Conflict

Project Summary

This research project will seek to understand the lessons learned from the first major war in which cyber and kinetic actions took place alongside each other – and reinforced each other. While the Russo-Ukraine war appears far from over, events that have already occurred offer new insight into how cyber and traditional warfare interact – and, in particular, how defending governments and operators are deploying both old and new strategies to combat it.

Major Publications

• How to Focus on the China Challenge in the Midst of a Russian War, The National Interest, April 6. -- https://nationalinterest.org/blog/techland-when-great-power-competition-meets-digital-world/how-focus-china-challenge-midst
• Last Call at the “Star Wars Bar”: Harmonizing Incident and Breach Reporting Requirements, Lawfare Blog. --https://www.lawfareblog.com/last-call-star-wars-bar-harmonizing-incident-and-breach-reporting-requirements

• How Crowd-Forecasting Might Decrease the Cybersecurity Knowledge Deficit, Lawfare:  https://www.lawfareblog.com/how-crowd-forecasting-might-decrease-cybersecurity-knowledge-deficit