Strengthening Soft Power of Cyber Resilience against State-Based Disinformation Attacks: Insights from South and Southeast Asia

This paper proposes a cyber resilience strategy that integrates cognitive resilience – namely, the individual and collective capacity to withstand informational and psychological manipulation campaigns intended to destabilise social and political systems. This integrated approach addresses threats that target both critical infrastructure and public trust. While Germany has taken significant steps to enhance cyber resilience through technical safeguards and public awareness, a more holistic strategy being adopted would help strengthen societal defence alongside infrastructural protection. A model of cyber resilience built on three interlinked layers is introduced: hardware, software, and citizen trust. To reinforce the trust layer, which embodies the soft power of cyber resilience, it presents an original “TRUST” framework: Training, Reinforcement, Unification, Structural Partnerships, and Trust-Building. Informed by case studies from Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and India, this framework offers practical examples to strengthen Germany’s cognitive resilience strategies. Also proposed is the development of a publicly available TRUST score (similar to a credit rating) that evaluates the effectiveness of these strategies. This could assist with building public confidence in government and strengthening societal resistance, recognising citizens as central to social defence.