Part I – Conclusion

Summary

This first Part of the book dealt with the attribution of cyber operations and focused mainly on the international law dimension of attribution, namely the identification of the State conducting or sponsoring a cyber operation. This was the object of Chapter 4. The need to contextualise this analysis required examination of the imputation to a State together with the two other dimensions of attribution: identification of the machines and human perpetrators involved in the cyber operations. This was the object of Chapter 2. An important outcome of this study is that even if they are closely related to each other, the various dimensions of attribution remain separate and distinct. Even when the identification of the computer is impossible, attribution to the State might nevertheless be possible. Thus, in any exercise establishing the origins of a cyber operation, the impossibility, or difficulty, of performing technical attribution does not prevent attribution to the human perpetrator or the potential sponsoring State. Large amounts of information about relevant factors outside the technical and cyber realms can be gathered and might lead to attribution.