News stories about cybersecurity breaches and attacks are bountiful, these attacks have affected millions of consumers. With the rise in technology, came the rise of cybercrime, the possibilities have become nearly endless for hackers. Cybercrime has damaged everyone from individuals, to corporations, to governments. It is estimated that the global cost of cybercrime in 2017 alone was over $600 billion, with these figures rising every year. One of the biggest problems with cybersecurity attacks is the difficulty of tracking attacks back to the perpetrators, states are also able to plausibly deny cyber attacks.
Cybersecurity attacks have had impacts on many countries, and has led to the development of many sanctions, acts and regulations, such as the EU GDPR. Three of the worlds most powerful nations, the United States, China and Russia, have all influenced, or been influenced by cybersecurity issues. All three of these nations have had a history of either being targeted or perpetrating cyberespionage campaigns, such as the theft of data from the Lockheed Martin F-35 program by China.
Organizations such as the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) and UN GGE (United Nations Governmental Groups of Experts) have been developed and allocated more resources in the past few decades. After repeated incidences of cyberespionage campaigns between China and the United States, an agreement has been reached, and since then, the accounts of cyberaggression between the two nations has decreased drastically, and there is also now a dialogue between the two nations to fight cybercrime. NATO and many European nations have come together to combat cybercrime by improving the measures set in place. Cyberespionage campaigns between countries have, for the most part, decreased in the past few years, despite the increasing prevalence of information and communcation technologies. The European Union establishing privacy regulations has also helped with protecting the privacy of individuals.
