Leiden University Student Repository

Witte, Jeroen (2021)

The influence of geographical assumptions on states’ responses to major cyber-attacks

Bachelor thesis | Security Studies (BSc)

Responses to major cyber-attacks diverge because states securitize the concepts of territory, borders, and sovereignty in cyberspace differently. By adopting a framework of critical geopolitics and securitization theory, this paper explores the influence of geographical assumptions on states’ responses to major cyber-attacks. It argues that a state’s view on the applicability of territory, borders, and sovereignty in cyberspace, provides the state with a rationale for a specific response to a major cyber-attack. This argument is made through case studies of the Estonian response to the 2007 DDoS attacks against Estonia, the U.S. response to the Sony Pictures hack, and the U.K. response to the Wannacry ransomware attack that severely affected the NHS.

geopolitical

cyber

hacks

assumptions

state

behaviour

responses

Author

Witte, Jeroen

Faculty

Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs

Supervisors

Kaminska, M.K.

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en