Economic Cyber-Espionage in the Visegrád Four Countries: a Hungarian Perspective

This article explores the regulatory framework of reference of economic cyber-espionage in Europe, with a particular focus on the V4 region (comprising Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic) and taking Hungary as a case study. Europe Union member states, including the V4 countries, are particularly exposed to economic cyber-espionage, because of the advanced know-how of the companies based therein. Under international law, there exists no uniform approach to the matter; also at the European Union level, the legal framework appears rather fragmented and the same holds true at the national level and within the V4 group, where each country has adopted its own relevant regulation. After a general overview of the relevant international and EU regulatory framework of reference, this article overviews the modus operandi of the V4 and examines its approach to economic cyber-espionage, with a special focus on Hungary as case study. As already remarked at the European and international levels, cybersecurity policies and regulations, including those regarding economic cyber-espionage operations, should be drafted in coordination among states; the V4 group can become a privileged platform of discussion to advance in the regulatory harmonisation of the issues at stake.

Tinjauan Yuridis Cyber Espionage Berdasarkan Hukum Internasional

Due to the rapid transformation of technology causing a subliminal changes on how states spy upon each other. With the help of technology and cyber infrastructure, states tend to use cyber technology as its main facility to conduct an espionage towards other states. Cyber espionage has come to represent national security and economic threat, due to all the classified information that already been massively stolen by another country. The aim of this research paper is to analyze and clarify pertaining the role of International law specifically towards this kind of act of espionage, and perceive the state responsibility of perpetrator which is states. It can be concluded that cyber espionage does not per se regulated under international law, but its lawfulness depends on the way in which it operation carried out may violate specific international conventions or any other international law principles.Keywords: Cyberlaw; Cyber Espionage; International Law.AbstrakPesatnya perkembangan teknologi dan digitalisasi mengakibatkan terjadinya perubahan metode dan cara dalam pelaksanaan tindakan spionase oleh negara terhadap negara lain guna mengumpulkan fakta dan informasi yang berkaitan dengan perkembangan politik, ekonomi, teknologi, dll melalui kapabilitas teknologi siber atau kerap disebut sebagai cyber espionage. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menganalisis terkait peranan hukum internasional dalam mengatur tindakan tersebut dalam tataran internasional dan bagaimana pertanggungjawaban dari negara pelaku tindakan cyber espionage. Hasil dari penelitian ini menyimpulkan bahwa belum ada konvensi international khusus yang mengatur mengenai cyber espionage sehingga tindakan cyber espionage itu sendiri merupakan tindakan yang masih belum diatur secara international.Kata Kunci: Hukum Siber; Cyber Espionage; Hukum Internasional.

Cybersecurity, Global Commerce, and International Organizations

As private-sector enterprises became dependent on Internet-enabled technologies, cybersecurity threats developed into serious problems in international political economy. This chapter analyses how states use international organizations to address these threats. The chapter explains why international organizations were not prominent in the Internet’s emergence and impact on transnational trade and investment. It examines the main threats companies face, including cybercrime, economic cyber espionage, government surveillance and hacking, innovation in digital technologies, and poor corporate cyber defences. International organizations have been most involved in fighting cybercrime, but these efforts have not been successful. International organizations do not play significant roles in countering other cybersecurity threats in global commerce. The chapter argues that international organizations are unlikely to become more important in the future because geopolitics and shifts in domestic politics in democracies will make collective action on cybersecurity in global commerce more difficult.

International Law for Cyberspace

This chapter describes the role of international law in cyberspace and in addressing the legality of cyber-related actions taken by countries, companies, associations, and citizens on the world stage. Cyberspace has been described as a new ‘domain’ that is radically different from the land and sea upon which international law developed, but such law either covers or is evolving to cover issues that have been under development for hundreds of years. Such coverage includes the international law principles of sovereignty, due diligence, jurisdiction, and state responsibility. International law also covers numerous specialized regimes: human rights, diplomatic and consular law, law of the sea, air law, space law, and international telecommunications law. Another developing area of international law and cyberspace concerns international peace and security with respect to cyber activities, but those issues lead right up to the threshold of conflict. The once theoretical and purely academic literature of cybercrime, cyber espionage, and, especially, cyberwar must now be applied to real-world cases, and law and policy for the future of cybersecurity must be formulated with an understanding of these broadly accepted international norms.

Cyber Espionage

The ubiquity of information technology augurs a new golden age of espionage. Intelligence is the use of deceptive means for strategic ends. It encompasses the collection of secrets, analysis and decision support, covert action and influence, and counterintelligence. Modern computational networks expand the opportunities for all these types of intelligence, for new types of actors to engage in intelligence activities, and for almost anyone or anything to become intelligence targets. Yet large-scale information systems also amplify the classic ethical, operational, and strategic challenges associated with intelligence. Many of the policy controversies associated with cybersecurity, for instance, are not simply novelties of the Internet age, but rather are symptomatic of the uneasy relationship between counterintelligence and democracy. Understanding the technology used for cyber intrusion may be necessary for understanding cyber conflict, but it is not sufficient for comprehending its strategic ends and limits: it is further necessary to understand the political logic of intelligence.

Algeria-Morocco tensions will be contained

Significance In June, Morocco accused Algeria of illicitly facilitating the transfer of Western Saharan independence leader Brahim Ghali to Spain for medical treatment. In July, an investigative journalism consortium revealed that Morocco had been engaged in a cyber espionage offensive that targeted, among others, Algerian politicians, military officers, civil society activists and journalists. Morocco extended an olive branch, which Algeria immediately rejected. Impacts Though Brussels has long favoured Rabat over Algiers, Morocco’s recent actions may reinvigorate Algeria-EU relations The developments, which seem detrimental to Morocco’s foreign relations, may indicate that King Mohammed has less control than in the past. Moroccan and Algerian business communities are unlikely to be impacted by the diplomatic spats.