A New Political Weapon? Cyberattacks in Non-Democratic Regimes

新的政治武器？

• 批准号: 402127652
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Nils B. Weidmann
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: San Diego Supercomputer Center
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2017-12-31 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/402127652?language=en
• 关键词: New; Political; Weapon; Cyberattacks; Non

In today’s world, modern information and communication technology (ICT), in particular the Internet, has opened up a new sphere of communication. Some argue that the most fundamental changes introduced by ICT have taken place in non-democratic countries, where ICT infrastructure and communication have become contested for political purposes, and governments and opposition actors can employ a number of tactics in the digital realm. One of the tactics is the use of Denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. In a DoS attack, the targeted server is flooded with traffic to the extent that it cannot be reached anymore. A number of prominent examples suggest that DoS attacks are becoming an important weapon for political conflict both for governments attempting to prevent mobilization, but also by opposition actors attempting to shut down important government targets. So far, however, a systematic analysis is lacking. What are the patterns of DoS attacks in autocratic countries? Who uses them, and what are the consequences? In order to fill these gaps in the scholarly literature, this project teams up with computer scientists that are experts in Internet measurement. With the help of these experts, the project leverages large-scale data collection of DoS attacks on the global Internet in order to systematically measure the incidence of the attacks across and within all states worldwide. This systematic, large-scale data collection will make it possible, for the first time, to (i) map out the global patterns of DoS attacks and analyze the extent to which they are driven by politics, (ii) test how these “new” tactics of contention interact with conventional ones such as protest and repression, and (iii) determine the effects of these attacks both when it comes to international attention, but also to protest dynamics on the ground.

当今世界，现代信息通信技术，特别是互联网，开辟了一个新的通信领域。一些人认为，信息通信技术带来的最根本的变化发生在非民主国家，在那里，信息通信技术基础设施和通信因政治目的而受到争议，政府和反对派行动者可以在数字领域采用多种策略。其中一种策略是使用拒绝服务（DoS）攻击。在DoS攻击中，目标服务器被流量淹没到无法再访问的程度。许多突出的例子表明，DoS攻击正在成为政治冲突的重要武器，无论是政府试图阻止动员，还是反对派试图关闭重要的政府目标。然而，到目前为止，还缺乏系统的分析。专制国家的DoS攻击模式是什么？谁在使用它们，后果是什么？为了填补这些学术文献的空白，该项目与互联网测量专家的计算机科学家合作。在这些专家的帮助下，该项目利用全球互联网上DoS攻击的大规模数据收集，以便系统地测量全球所有国家之间和内部的攻击发生率。这种系统的、大规模的数据收集将使我们第一次有可能(i)绘制出DoS攻击的全球模式，并分析它们受政治驱动的程度，（ii）测试这些“新”争论策略如何与传统策略（如抗议和镇压）相互作用，以及（iii）确定这些攻击在引起国际关注时的影响，以及在地面上的抗议动态。