IEEE Workshop on Countering Cognitive and Hybrid Threats in Cultural Heritage (C2T-CH)
Venice, Italy (hybrid event) • September 7–9, 2026
Hybrid threats—combining cyberattacks, information manipulation, physical sabotage, and geopolitical pressure—can target cultural institutions, archives, museums, and digital repositories to destabilize societies and undermine trust. Cognitive threats, including disinformation, narrative manipulation, deepfakes, and AI-driven influence operations, directly affect collective memory, identity, and historical interpretation. Cultural Heritage thus becomes both a target and a vector within broader strategic conflicts.
Prospective authors are encouraged to submit previously unpublished contributions from a broad range of topics, which include but are not limited to the following:
› Hybrid threats targeting Cultural Heritage institutions and infrastructures
› Cognitive Warfare and information manipulation affecting historical narratives
› Disinformation, Deepfakes, and AI-generated content detection
› LLM Allucination induced and Digital Archives poisoning
› Digital Cultural Assets Trustworthy Certification
› Reputation and Trust Management Systems in Cultural Heritage
› Digital sovereignty in heritage infrastructures
› OSINT methodologies for monitoring threats to cultural heritage
› Incident response and adaptation frameworks for hybrid attack
› Community-based monitoring and citizen science approaches
› Mechanisms of memory manipulationan and collective identity erosion detection
› Social media as a vector for historical revisionism
› Influence operations targeting public perception of cultural heritage
› ICT supported psychological resilience and counter-narrative strategies for communities
› Education in building societal immunity to cognitive threats
› Supply-chain attack to heritage digitization devices
› Collaborative Digital Cultural Assets Trustworthy attestation
› Ethical, legal, and governance frameworks for countering hybrid threats
› Detection and mitigation of influence operations in cultural contexts
› Dark web trafficking of cultural artifacts enabled by digital tools
› Tamper-proof digital provenance and metadata records
› Data Journalism and AI enhanced fact-checking in heritage protection
› NATO’s hybrid threat doctrine applied to cultural heritage protection
› Heritage Weaponization
› C2PA Initiative
Important Dates
Paper submission deadline: April 12, 2026
Authors’ notification: May 2, 2026
Camera-ready submission: May 15, 2026
Early registration deadline: May 20, 2026
Conference dates: Sept 7–9, 2026
Submission Guidelines
Submitted manuscripts should not exceed 6 pages (plus 2 extra pages, being subject to overlength page charges) and should be of sufficient detail to be evaluated by expert reviewers in the field. The workshop’s proceedings will be published by IEEE and will be included in IEEE Xplore subject to meeting IEEE Xplore’s scope and quality requirements.
The guidelines for authors, manuscript preparation guidelines, and policies of the IEEE CH conference are applicable to AFCH workshop. Please visit the instructions page for more details. When submitting your manuscript via Easychair, please make sure that the workshop’s track WS-C2T-CH is selected.
Workshop Committees
Program Chiars
Emanuele Bellini University of Roma Tre
Igor Linkov USACE
Technical Program Committee
Davide Pescaroli University College London (UK)
Igor Linkov USACE (USA)
Laurent Boch RAI (IT)
Ronald Alcala Westpoint (USA)
Supported by
