Global Accountability in Cyberspace: International Efforts to Hold Irresponsible States to Account

Line of Effort 4: Hold Irresponsible States Accountable

To constrain our adversaries effectively and counter malicious activities below the threshold of armed conflict, we will continue to work with our allies and partners to condemn this activity and impose meaningful consequences. These efforts use all the tools of statecraft, including diplomatic isolation, law enforcement, counter-cyber operations, and economic sanctions. In September 2019, 27 countries publicly pledged in a U.S.-led Joint Statement on Advancing Responsible State Behavior in Cyberspace to collaborate voluntarily to hold states accountable when they act contrary to the framework. The number of states willing to publicly hold states accountable reached 39 in July 2021 when NATO, the EU, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Japan all publicly condemned the PRC’s involvement in the Microsoft Exchange server data breach incident and other malicious cyber activities. More recently, likeminded coalitions attributed Russia’s cyberattack on Viasat’s KA-SAT satellite communications network on the eve of its invasion of Ukraine and stood in solidarity with Albania in the wake of Iran’s disruptive cyber operations. The United States will continue to work to expand the coalition of those willing to hold states accountable for disruptive and destabilizing cyber activity and to utilize appropriate multilateral groupings to support each other and to assist the victims of such behavior.