The recent SolarWinds hack demonstrated the willingness and expertise of cyberspies to penetrate thousands of networks by targeting a single entity. This issue is becoming ever more worrying for...Show moreThe recent SolarWinds hack demonstrated the willingness and expertise of cyberspies to penetrate thousands of networks by targeting a single entity. This issue is becoming ever more worrying for the West due to the public attribution of the SolarWinds hack to the Russian government. The Russian government is becoming more assertive in cyberspace. One of their main activities is cyber espionage. Nevertheless, the cybersecurity literature is heavily focused on the technical aspects and makes assumptions for foreign entities’ motivations and intentions based on U.S. understanding of cyberspace. The applications of classical international relations theories to cyberspace phenomena, like cyber espionage, is scarce in the political science literature on this topic, which is mainly policy-oriented. Therefore, this paper will try to fill that gap by analysing Russia’s cyber espionage strategy through the prisms of offensive realism. The theory of Mearsheimer (2014) describes Moscow’s cyber espionage strategy to a certain extent, and it prescribes certain areas on which the Kremlin is most likely to focus. This research will benefit the academic and professional community alike, as it can provide additional tools for cyber espionage activities’ attribution.Show less
This thesis aimed to explore the development of the U.S. government’s threat perception of cyber espionage through the Securitization Theory between 2011 and 2020 (Buzan et al, 1997). A case study...Show moreThis thesis aimed to explore the development of the U.S. government’s threat perception of cyber espionage through the Securitization Theory between 2011 and 2020 (Buzan et al, 1997). A case study was deployed in which the U.S. government was the case and a total of 34 governmental documents were analyzed. The analysis shows that Chinese industrial espionage is at the core of developing the threat perception of the U.S. Furthermore, the speech act, referent objects, and acceptance of a relevant audience remained fairly constant factors between 2011 and 2020. However, the level of threat that Chinese industrial cyber espionage posed to the U.S fluctuates. From 2011 until 2015, the analysis indicated an increase in the threat level but seemed to have slightly decreased between 2015 and 2016. From 2016 until 2020, the perceived threat seems to increase again. The year 2020 indicated a shift from Chinese industrial cyberespionage to Russian cyberespionage. However, the latter statement requires more rigorous analysis.Show less
This research paper discusses foreign cyber espionage operations within a time frame from January 2019 to March 2021. The global crisis induced by the sudden emergence of the Covid-19 virus has...Show moreThis research paper discusses foreign cyber espionage operations within a time frame from January 2019 to March 2021. The global crisis induced by the sudden emergence of the Covid-19 virus has impacted the World in more ways than just consequences for our health. Cyber security experts, and voices from the public and private sector alike, point towards the worsening state of cyber security. Over the past year, the scale and intensity of malicious cyber operations had increased at an unprecedented rate, and these developments strongly correlated with the start of the Coronavirus pandemic. The majority of the existing literature on this topic explores the relationship between Covid-19 and trends in cyber crime, however, there is little academic material exploring whether cyber espionage operations have reflected these trends. This research paper seeks to address this knowledge gap, by conducting inductive research into what were the cyber espionage trends throughout the pandemic. The following is a comprehensive secondary data analysis, presenting an overview of open access reports and media articles that discuss cyber espionage in the light of Covid-19. The paper concludes that over the course of the pandemic so far, both private and public healthcare organisations were the primary targets, with state-sponsored APTs as the usual perpetrators and social engineering techniques as their weapon of choice.Show less
