Strategic aspects of cyberattack, attribution, and blame

Abstract

Attribution of cyberattacks has strategic and technical components. We provide a formal model that incorporates both elements and shows the conditions under which it is rational to tolerate an attack and when it is better to assign blame publicly. The model applies to a wide range of conflicts and provides guidance to policymakers about which parameters must be estimated to make a sound decision about attribution and blame. It also draws some surprising conclusions about the risks of asymmetric technical attribution capabilities.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Feb 27, 2017
Source ID
10.1073/pnas.1700442114

Entities

People

  • Alexander Furnas
  • Benjamin Edwards
  • Robert Axelrod
  • Stephanie Forrest

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory
  • IBM Research
  • National Science Foundation
  • Santa Fe Institute
  • University of Michigan
  • University of New Mexico

Tags

Readers

  • Cybersecurity.
  • Educational Psychology
  • Regression Analysis.