Cybersecurity Synergies & Gaps Identification in the Age of Digital Cognition

Zlatogor Minchev 1, 2, 3
1 Institute of ICT, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Acad. Georgi Bonchev Str., Bl. 25A, Sofia, 1113, Bulgaria
2 Institute of Mathematics & Informatics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Acad. Georgi Bonchev Str., Bl. 8, Sofia, 1113, Bulgaria
3 Centre for Implementation of Scientific Research on Digitisation of the Economy in an Environment of Big Data (DEEBD), Sofia, Bulgaria
zlatogor@bas.bg
DOI: 10.46793/BISEC25.120M

 

ABSTRACT: Nowadays smart digital reality is already evolving to a new fundamental change, related to the fast AI algorithmic sentient progress with vast interconnectivities and the resulting H-M symbiotic development. The study outlines a practical experiment on the “digital cognition” modelling, in the context of AI sentient evolu-tion exploration. Expert data and generative AI feedbacks are initially used in this process, both fused in an ad hoc created system-of-systems dynamic model. Fur-ther, a dynamic assessment of the model is performed with mixed H-M validation by implementing the scenario method and probabilistic HPC simulations. Most prominent results have been finally jointly verified in an interactive simulation with a human-in-the-loop active role during CYREX 2025 and in lab conditions. The approach is trying to identify key synergies and gaps of the model, outlining also internal triggers, aiming potential system advancements. The obtained results are expected to support the development of a forward-thinking holistic proactive analysis of the cyber security evolution, giving accent to the sentient features of “digital cognition” in both offensive and defensive context. These will create a suitable post-information society preparation for successful handling of the future interconnected reality’s AI-influenced transcendents and the necessity for a dual human-machine smart regulations establishment within the not so far future.

KEYWORDS: Future Cyber Security, Synergies & Gaps Identification, Digital Cognition, Sys-tem Dynamics Modelling, H-M Validation & Verification.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT: The author of this study is granting a special appreciation for the experimental base and partial funding support to the National Scientific Programme “Security & Defense”. Additional gratitude for the institutional contributions is provided to EDIH “Takia”, Association of the Officers in the Reserve “Atlantic”, IFIP TC 14 “Entertainment Computing”, and the Association for the Development of the Information Society. Distinctive thanks are further expressed to Fsas Technologies, Fujitsu for the private AI cloud tools provision support. The analytical results in the paper are also benefiting the Centre of Competence on Digitisation of the economy in an environment of Big Data-second stage, Grant No. BG16RFPR002-1.014-0013-C01, financed by the Science and Education for Smart Growth Operational Program and co-financed by the European Union through the European Structural and Investment Funds. Finally, the international expert support is further reinforced by the initiative “Securing Digital Future 21” with more than sixty countries now, spread around the world, https://securedfuture21.org/.

REFERENCES:

  1. Minchev, Future Security Issues in the Age of Digital Cognition, Softtrade, 1st edn. (2025)
  2. Rekart , R. Baker, Designing for Human Intelligence in an Artificial Intelligence World, Apress Berkeley, CA, 1st edn. (2025)
  3. Dutta, S. Gupta, S. Kashyap, A. Gehlot, R. Karmakar, P. Bhattacharya (eds) Emotional Intelligence in the Digital Era, 1st edn. CRC Press (2025)
  4. Žižek, M. Mulej, A. Potočnik. The sustainable socially responsible society: well-being society 6.0. Sustainability 13(16):9186, (2021), https://doi.org/10.3390/su13169186, last ac-cessed 2026/02/11
  5. Minchev, V. Tzourov, Global Security Transformation Towards 2040: Transcendents in the Age of AI, Softtrade, 1st edn. (2025)
  6. Choudhary, Internet of Things: a comprehensive overview, architectures, applications, simulation tools, challenges and future directions. Discov Internet Things 4, 31 (2024), https://doi.org/10.1007/s43926-024-00084-3, last accessed 2026/02/11
  7. Russell, P. Norvig (eds), Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, 4th edn. Pearson (2022)
  8. Malja, H. Afrasiabi, Artificial intelligence and society: mapping the research through a systematic review. AI & Soc (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-025-02555-9, last ac-cessed 2026/02/11
  9. Ofusori, T. Bokaba, & S. Mhlongo, Artificial Intelligence in Cybersecurity: A Compre-hensive Review and Future Direction. Applied Artificial Intelligence, 38(1) (2024), https://doi.org/10.1080/08839514.2024.2439609, last accessed 2026/02/11
  10. Zaidan, I. Ibrahim, AI Governance in a Complex and Rapidly Changing Regulatory Landscape: A Global Perspective. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11, 1121 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03560-x, last accessed 2026/02/11
  11. Minchev, et al. Digital Transformation in the Post-Information Age, Softrade, 1st edn (2022)
  12. Skyttner, General Systems Theory, World Scientific, 2nd edn (2006)
  13. Vester, The Art of Interconnected Thinking – Ideas and Tools for Dealing with Com-plexity, Munchen, MCB–Verlag, 1st edn (2007)
  14. Chen, The Entity-Relationship Model-Toward a Unified View of Data, ACM Transac-tions on Database Systems, 1, 9-36 (1976)
  15. Zwicky, Discovery, Invention, Research through the Morphological Approach, Macmil-lan, 1st edn (1969)
  16. Minchev, Human Factor Role for Cyber Threats Resilience, In Handbook of Research on Civil Society and National Security in the Era of Cyber Warfare, 1 edn., M. Hadji-Janev and M. Bogdanoski, Eds., IGI Global, (2015)
  17. Minchev,  Digital  Society  Future  Transformation  Perspectives  in  the Informational Age, In Proc. of 11th IEEE International Conference on Dependable Systems, Services and Technologies, DESSERT’2020, 14-18 May, Kyiv, Ukraine, 381-388, (2020)
  18. Conference with Cyber/HPC Training “Future Security Transformation: Synergies in the Post‑Information Age, Home Page, https://bit.ly/4tBemsQ, last accessed 2026/02/11
  19. Minchev, Future Cybersecurity Landscape Exploration with CAX in the Age of AI, in Proc. of BISEC 2024, Nis, Serbia, Nov 28-29 (2024), CEUR Workshop Proceedings, https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3971/short09.pdf, last accessed 2026/02/11
  20. Arnold, M. Goldschmitt, T. Rigotti, Dealing with information overload: a comprehensive review. Front Psychol. 2023 Jun 21;14:1122200. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1122200, last ac-cessed 2026/02/11
  21. Anthis, J. Pauketat, A. Ladak, A. Manoli. Perceptions of Sentient AI and Other Digital Minds: Evidence from the AI, Morality, and Sentience (AIMS) Survey. In Proc. of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’25). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 10, 1–22 (2025), https://doi.org/10.1145/3706598.3713329, last accessed 2026/02/11

 

IZVOR: Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Business Information Security BISEC’2025