Accountability in cyberspace : the Holy Grail of cyber stability?

Abstract

The pursual of accountability in cyberspace is a story of the Holy Grail eagerly searched for by the international cyber-policy community. Accountability – narrowly understood by the cyber elites as the capacity to impose consequences on actors for their malicious and/or illegal behaviour in cyberspace – is seen as a potentially strong deterrent. But the limited effects of the current practices – such as joint attribution statements or targeted sanctions – have raised questions about whether anyone at all is held accountable and to what effect.