Cyber Mercenaries

Cyber Mercenaries explores the secretive relationships between states and hackers. As cyberspace has emerged as the new frontier for geopolitics, states have become entrepreneurial in their sponsorship, deployment, and exploitation of hackers as proxies to project power. Such modern-day mercenaries and privateers can impose significant harm undermining global security, stability, and human rights. These state-hacker relationships therefore raise important questions about the control, authority, and use of offensive cyber capabilities. While different countries pursue different models for their proxy relationships, they face the common challenge of balancing the benefits of these relationships with their costs and the potential risks of escalation. This book examines case studies in the United States, Iran, Syria, Russia, and China for the purpose of establishing a framework to better understand and manage the impact and risks of cyber proxies on global politics.

Author Biography

Tim Maurer co-directs the Cyber Policy Initiative at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is a member of several US track 1.5 cyber dialogues and the Freedom Online Coalition’s cybersecurity working group. He co-chaired the Advisory Board of the 2015 Global Conference on CyberSpace, participated in the Global Commission on Internet Governance, and supported the confidence-building work of the OSCE. His work has been published by Foreign Policy, The Washington Post, TIME, Jane’s Intelligence Review, CNN, Slate, Lawfare, and other academic and media venues. He holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.