No Bigger Problem Than Cyber Attribution?

Thema

A working cooperative security architecture does require a certain level of transparency between the involved actors. An agreed transparency scheme decreases the level of mistrust and provides a fundament for taking joint actions against irresponsible behavior. In cyberspace, independent, reliable, and non-politicized monitoring and verification are widely lacking. What we witness instead is a relatively high degree of finger-pointing and naming-and-shaming. It is often said that the so-called attribution problem is the most important obstacle to transparency in the digital domain as it lowers substantially the chance to ascribe cyber-attacks and disinformation campaigns to the responsible actors. Therefore, conventional monitoring and verification methods – such as on-site inspections, sensor installations, or areal images – that are used with regard to other military technologies and weapon categories are unlikely to operate properly in cyberspace. However, in recent years several ideas were floated and proposed how to increase transparency in the digital domain and to handle the attribution problem. The purpose of this session is to elaborate and evaluate these proposals and sketch out an outlook about the future development of the debate on cyber monitoring.