Date of Award:

5-2024

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Political Science

Committee Chair(s)

Austin Knuppe

Committee

Austin Knuppe

Committee

Colin Flint

Committee

David Winberg

Abstract

When a country is targeted with a cyberattack, what compels its government to publicly attribute the perpetrators of the attack rather than keep their attribution private? Cyberattacks are an increasingly utilized weapon of international conflict by governments, groups, and individuals. Following a cyberattack, the target of the attack may investigate the origin of the attack and may choose to share their findings with the public; alternatively, they may choose not to publicly share their findings.

While we know that forensic capabilities and international political factors contribute to the decision of governments to make public cyberattack attribution, domestic political circumstances may also inform this choice. This study finds a positive association between the odds of public cyberattack attribution among countries with greater degrees of press freedom as well as a decreased odds of public attribution when both the target and the suspected initiator are democracies. Understanding the complexity of government attribution choices will inform international cyber conflict and war perceptions and aid in the anticipation of conflict and war escalation.

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