Attribution

Legal attribution is one of the constitutive elements of an international wrongful act, and consists of the attachment “of a given action or omission to a State”.

Many States, including Australia, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland have affirmed that there is no legal obligation to make or publicize decisions on attribution, but rather the act of attributing a cyber operation under international law is a national prerogative at the discretion of each State.

As a rule, the conduct of State organs is attributable to the State in question; by contrast, the conduct of non-State actors or third States’ organs can only be attributed to the State under specific circumstances.

State organs and persons and entities in exercise of governmental authority


Non-State actors


Evidentiary standards
