Cyber Sovereignty and the (Multitude of the) Industrial Metaverse

Digital profiling and tracking in the age of attention economy and surveillance capitalism implies intricate and subtle ways of profiling and influencing people, but also industries, organizations and societies. The nature and full impact of this is only partially recognized at the civic level, receiving rather slack attention at the political/legal level, and scarcely addressed as a safety/security issue in industrial and societal contexts and corresponding critical roles and positions of individuals. These aspects carry serious challenges for the ambition of industrial participation in the private-public domain for national security, and for total defense approaches. In this paper, we explore the rise of vulnerabilities released by new industrial digitalization paradigms and practices, and their potential impact on society and state security from a cyber sovereignty and resilience perspective. Accompanied by growing concern for industrial and national sovereignty in cyberspace and burgeoning geopolitical instability, this constitutes a gap which urgently needs recognition. By investigating the concept of cyber sovereignty and the growing interest for the industrial metaverse on a global scale, we discuss to which extent cyber resilience thinking may be a counterweight to the vast digital vulnerabilities and challenges that can be envisaged. Although the exploration is brief and results tentative, reflecting the inherent complexity and dynamism in the field due to both technological, economic and geopolitical factors, we argue that both practical and theoretical (envisaged) approaches to cyber resilience may fall short towards the pace of change in the cyber domain. This may have serious implications for the prospect of industrial contribution to national security.

Keywords: cyber sovereignty, Cybersecurity, Cyber resilience, Industrial metaverse, Hybrid threats, National security.