A Political Economy of Digital Espionage

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As nation-states increasingly rely on espionage in cyberspace to maintain their leverage, we discuss the evolution of espionage from traditional methods into the digital world. We discuss the individual political economies of nation-states with significant offensive cyber capabilities, and how they reflect on to espionage methods. Through a causative analysis, we chart the rise of private actors that nation-states rely on to facilitate digital espionage methodologies such as surveillance and hacking. We compare the change in digital espionage as a factor in, and as the result of, kinetic warfare. Through the network effects of the few private actors and their offensive tooling available to governments worldwide, we aim to answer the central question of the societal cost of digital espionage, in particular to democratic institutions such as the free press, and the private actors who profiteer from this cost.