Attribution in Cyberspace : Beyond the “Whodunnit”

Attribution refers to the action of regarding something as being caused by a thing or person. In cyberspace, attribution goes beyond the simple action of finding out who’s responsible behind aggressive behaviour online. The goal of this paper is to outline the process of attribution in cyber-attacks, especially in the current context of states indirectly sponsoring cyber-attacks against other entities by outsourcing hacking to nonstate hackers. The paper also aims to highlight the challenges to the process of attribution in this context.