Cyber sanctions

Especially with the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the use of economic sanctions increased exponentially and became the most important foreign policy instruments since the beginning of the 21st century.

According to David Baldwin, economic sanctions are the options that have dynamic nature, meaning that they can escalate to interstate wars or deescalate to diplomatic negotiations.

However, the trend shows that states are enacting some bills that consider the use of economic sanctions for cyber conflicts at the international level.

[1] We can consider the legal basis for the use of sanctions for cyber activities under the United Nations Charter's Article 2.4 where it is stated that:“All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”Under the light of the UN Charter, many actors in the international system, including the European Union as an international organization, and the major EU member countries, and the United States, have already taken steps using proactive and reactive financial and economic sanctions that can even escalate to the application of military options.

[16] The authority of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is responsible for the initiation and outcomes of the economic sanctions related to cyber-related activities.

These conclusions also included detailed strategies envisioning the contingency plans and coordinating the responses against malicious cyber activities targeting the EU member countries.

The EU Council's conclusions stress the inevitable cyber chaos that can diffuse all over the world if a collective action is not achieved in this regard.

Currently, the EU Council is working on enhancing collective cyber response focusing on sanctioning the target by creating a new entity, which is called “cyber intelligence working group.”[17][18] Although there are steps taken in using economic sanctions for cyber-related attacks against the EU, these measures are not completed yet, and the member countries have different opinions on the response strategies.

These characteristics of economic sanctions make their use as a viable option for the increasing threats of malicious cyber activities both at intranational and international levels.

However, we might see that countries can be more willing to cooperate in the future because the level of cyber threats is increasing exponentially every day beyond the international borders.