Warring from the Virtual to the Real: Assessing the Public's Threshold for War on Cyber Security

Abstract

Are military strikes ever a justifiable response to a cyber security attack? Does the certainty of attribution matter? Or the nature of the attack itself a better determinants of attitudes about retaliation? We answer these questions with an original survey experiment that uncovers the public's response to varying intensities and degrees of attribution regarding a range of cyber attacks. In a democratic setting, how the public responds to different types of cyber attacks has important implications, as it shapes the incentives for whether and how leaders to respond with the use of force. It therefore has significant implications for a world with increasing offensive cyber capabilities and only nascent international norms in a governing them.