1.5 Future Challenges In the 21st century, it is not enough to merely react to national security threats. The Czech Republic will take a proactive approach and strive to understand new threats as soon as possible, while creating resiliency and the capacities to fight against them. We are currently undergoing a fundamental transformation of the security space, intensified by the dynamic development of modern technologies. Artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and other modern concepts will lead to a paradigm shift in cyber security. It will also intensify the dependence of the state and society on modern technologies, while expanding attackers’ options for malicious activity against the state, private entities, and individuals. A change in cybercrime capabilities and more sophisticated and technologically advanced methods of committing crimes, as well as an increase in the number of attacks can all be expected, as well as more ingenious cyberattacks by state and non-state entities. The coming years may bring an unprecedented transformation in the nature of conflicts, accelerated by the development of breakthrough technologies. The Czech Republic must create the capacity to identify, analyse, and evaluate not just current, but also future cyber threats and risks that could endanger national security or social and economic prosperity. It is also necessary to begin differentiating the attributes of ordinary cybercrime and cyber espionage to optimize the conditions for law enforcement and intelligence services to fulfil their tasks. The Czech Republic possesses excellent technical and technological cyber security knowledge. In order to be as resilient as possible to future attacks, the country must constantly monitor current affairs and remain active in research and innovation in new cyber security technologies, as should Czech industry. Cooperation with partners from the public, academic, and private sectors in research and development in technological and social science areas is thus fundamental. Research and development needs, problems, and priorities have to be clearly set with the goal of adequately reacting to the needs of society and users. The Czech Republic and its relevant state institutions must thus create a foundation for its partners that will strengthen knowledge-sharing and cooperation among individual entities. 14