System Resilience
From the Editor
System resilience lies at the heart of security. Whether confronting cyber threats, terrorism, or community disruption, the ability for systems to adapt, recover, and maintain core functions is crucial.
In this issue of CREST Security Review, we explore how system resilience is being tested across multiple fronts. From the risks of emerging AI and evolving extremist tactics, to the challenges of building trust in policing and planning for real-world emergencies, resilience is viewed through both technological and human lenses.
We also examine the pathways that shape resilience in young people, social networks, and communities. We begin with Peterscheck, who examines how artificial intelligence can be misused in ways that disproportionately harm women, girls, and minority communities. McVean continues the focus on AI with a look at synthetic speech and its role in new forms of cybercrime, while Stevenson explores how extremist groups are already incorporating AI into their tradecraft.
Resilience also depends on how systems build trust and communicate. Dobson shows how a simple transparency statement can help officers foster collaboration and restore confidence in policing. Esposito then highlights the importance of interpreting and translation in legal contexts, raising questions about fairness and accuracy when these services are delivered by humans or AI. Planning, too, is central to resilience: Sonnen warns that strategies written for idealised staff rather than real people risk setting systems up to fail. Rogers turns back to technology, assessing both the promise and pitfalls of using large language models to automatically generate counter-speech against extremist narratives.
Looking at resilience through different pathways, Pilkington argues that studying non-radicalisation helps us
understand how young people navigate adversity and resist extremist milieus. Crossley takes this further at the network level, showing how social ties can both strengthen and undermine resilience depending on how they are structured. Hazelden moves to the community scale, proposing a framework for resilience in Northern Ireland that supports not just recovery but transformation. Finally, Squires highlights how NextGen networks foster resilience within the research community itself, creating spaces for collaboration and future preparedness.
Beyond this issue’s theme, Henrich reviews the limited evidence on radicalisation in secure settings, revealing critical gaps in our understanding, while Quin examines the “copper’s nose,” exploring how instinct and professional experience continue to shape decisionmaking in policing.
Finally, sitting at the heart of this issue, we also mark a major milestone withCREST’s tenth anniversary, featuring a special timeline that reflects on the centre’s journey and impact over the past decade.
As always, we welcome your reflections on this issue. Please share your thoughts through our feedback survey, and let us know what topics you would like to see in future editions. Thank you.
Rebecca Stevens
Editor, CSR
