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The Trilateral Bond: Mapping a New Era for Latin America, the United States, and Europe
Egypt's Litigious Transition: Judicial Intervention and the Muddied Road to Democracy
A New Deal: Reforming US Defense Cooperation with Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership: Ambitious but Achievable
Time to Move from Tactics to Strategy on Iran
Lowering the Price of Russian Gas: A Challenge for European Energy Security
Does Beijing Have a Strategy? China's Alternative Futures
Council News
Michele Dunne and Amy Hawthorne on US Policy in Middle East (NPR)
Hariri Center Director Michele Dunne and Senior Fellow Amy Hawthorne reflect on US policy toward the Middle East and North Africa in the two years since President Barack Obama promised to make it a top priority to support democracy and human rights in the region.
J. Peter Pham Speaks on Sahel Politics and Security in The Hague
J. Peter Pham, director the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center, was one of four experts invited to address a high-level international conference on the crisis in the Sahel region convened today in The Hague.
Rudolph Atallah Testifies before House Panel on Crisis in the Sahel
Rudolph Atallah, senior fellow in the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center, testified at a House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing on “The Growing Crisis in Africa’s Sahel Region.”
Mihaela Carstei on the US-Canada Keystone Pipeline Project (CTV)
On the heels of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s visit to the United States, Energy & Environment Program Associate Director Mihaela Carstei joins CTV to discuss the Keystone Pipeline project that would transport tar sands oil from Canada and the northern United States to refineries in the Gulf coast of Texas.
Beyond Attribution: Seeking National Responsibility in Cyberspace
February 22, 2012
For more than two decades, cyber defenders, intelligence analysts, and policymakers have struggled to determine the source of the most damaging attacks. This “attribution problem” will only become more critical as we move into a new era of cyber conflict with even more attacks ignored, encouraged, supported, or conducted by national governments according to Jason Healey, the director of the Cyber Statecraft Initiative, in a new Atlantic Council issue brief.
Analysts often fall into the trap of “attribution fixation,” the belief that they cannot assess which organization or nation was behind an attack until technical forensics discovers the identity of the attacking machines. Because the Internet enables anonymity more than security, this bottom-up process rarely succeeds.
Fortunately, there is another option.
For national security policymakers, knowing “who is to blame?” can be more important than “who did it?” Moreover, attribution becomes far more tractable when approached as a top-down policy issue with nations held responsible for major attacks originating from their territory or conducted by their citizens.
Meeting the needs of policymakers must be the end goal of attribution, not a byproduct. So, in addition to making the case for national responsibility for cyber attacks, this issue brief proposes a spectrum of state responsibility to more directly tie the goals of attribution to the needs of policymakers.
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FEATURED EVENTS
Evolving US-European Security Cooperation with the Gulf States
On May 23, the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Peace and Security Initiative at the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security is hosting a panel discussion on new developments in security cooperation among the United States, its European allies, and the Gulf states, and how they are likely to evolve in the coming years.
The Kaleidoscope Turns Again in a Crisis-Challenged Iran
On May 30, the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center will release a new issue brief, The Kaleidoscope Turns Again in a Crisis-Challenged Iran, a discussion of Iran’s upcoming presidential elections.
2013 Wroclaw Global Forum
From June 13-14, the 2013 Wrocław Global Forum will bring together over 350 top policy-makers and business leaders to explore the region’s impact as an actor in Europe, as well as its crucial role in the transatlantic partnership and on the global stage.
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