Overview

RUSI is hosting the fifth event in its series on ‘Cyber Statecraft in an Era of Systemic Competition’.  

A decade ago, the US Department of Justice indicted five Chinese military officers for an extensive cyber espionage campaign targeting US companies. This marked the first time the US had charged a foreign government with hacking and represented a shift in the Obama administration’s response to Chinese economic espionage. According to an unnamed senior US government official quoted at the time, US diplomacy aimed ‘to persuade the Chinese that this is not just something we are doing for domestic political consumption, but it is in fact a significant issue and a significant irritant in the bilateral relationship’.

Since then, the practice of ‘naming and shaming’ state threat actors has become a routine part of US and UK statecraft. For proponents, public cyber attribution creates friction for adversaries, unites allies, and signals what is acceptable and unacceptable in cyberspace. For critics, ‘naming and shaming’ is viewed as a strategic failure that has had minimal effect in curbing hostile state activity.

To discuss the past, present and future of public cyber attribution, RUSI is convening a panel of experts from government, academia and industry.

The Cyber Statecraft event series is funded by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), in partnership with the Research Institute for Sociotechnical Cyber Security (RISCS).

Speakers 

Ciaran Martin, Professor of Practice, Blavatnik School of Government
Sandra Joyce, VP, Google Threat Intelligence
Samantha Seller, Head of Cyber Threats, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Sean Newell, Chief of the National Security Cyber Section, Department of Justice

Moderator: Shashank Joshi, Defence Editor, The Economist.

Joining Instructions

Please register your interest. This is an in-person only event which is open to all, taking place at King’s College London, Guy’s Campus, Great Maze Pond, London SE1 9GU. If you have any questions regarding the event, please email [email protected].

The discussion and the Q&A will be held without attribution. The event will not be recorded.

A drinks reception will follow the panel discussion from 18:30.

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