Beyond the Great Powers: Challenges for Understanding Cyber Operations in Latin America
Security Theme
Cybersecurity
Description
The past decades have been marked by a renewed interest from states in enhancing their cyber capabilities. Responses to evolving threats have ranged from establishing designated bodies for cybersecurity at the national level, such as cyber commands, to sanctions and cyber diplomacy as part of the ever-expanding national cyber policy ‘toolbox’. Countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and their allies have increasingly focused on questions related to offense-defense balance as part of designing their deterrence strategies in cyberspace. Concerns around the asymmetrical nature of cyber threats and the lower barriers of entry for non-state actors (although, at times, state-sponsored) have equally contributed to the emergence of concepts such as “active cyber defense,” “defend forward,” and “persistent engagement” as synonyms to “authorized offensive cyber operations.”1 In so doing, states believe they can shift the incentives and heighten the costs for adversaries (e.g., China, Russia, and North Korea) to engage in malicious activity2 while also staging a show of force.
Beyond the Great Powers: Challenges for Understanding Cyber Operations in Latin America
The past decades have been marked by a renewed interest from states in enhancing their cyber capabilities. Responses to evolving threats have ranged from establishing designated bodies for cybersecurity at the national level, such as cyber commands, to sanctions and cyber diplomacy as part of the ever-expanding national cyber policy ‘toolbox’. Countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and their allies have increasingly focused on questions related to offense-defense balance as part of designing their deterrence strategies in cyberspace. Concerns around the asymmetrical nature of cyber threats and the lower barriers of entry for non-state actors (although, at times, state-sponsored) have equally contributed to the emergence of concepts such as “active cyber defense,” “defend forward,” and “persistent engagement” as synonyms to “authorized offensive cyber operations.”1 In so doing, states believe they can shift the incentives and heighten the costs for adversaries (e.g., China, Russia, and North Korea) to engage in malicious activity2 while also staging a show of force.
