“Cyber Diplomacy through Official Public Attribution: Paving the Way for Global Norms”
This time, I combine three of my favorite things – public attribution, data (from the excellent hashtag#EuRepoC dataset) and an interesting case study – the hashtag#Iranian cyberattack on hashtag#Albania in 2022
From the abstract:
Official public attribution can serve as a practice for countries to express their disapproval of inappropriate cyberspace behavior and condemnation and can cumulatively shape international practices, holding the attacking state accountable.
I explore this by —
(1) Analyzing new data from the European Repository of Cyber Incidents, which shows patterns of official public attributions for the years 2000–2023, providing exploratory directions and trends.
(2) Examining the Iranian cyberattack against Albania in 2022 and its subsequent official public attributions as an illustrative case study.
This demonstrates how repeated instances of official public attribution can contribute to the development of a common practice that signals dissatisfaction with a specific behavior.
As state-sponsored cyberattacks and intrusions are on the rise, this practice could have an accumulative effect.
