Proceedings of the International Conference on Law and Technology (ICLT 2025)

<Previous Article In Volume
Next Article In Volume>

Cyber Espionage and the Limits of State Responsibility

Authors
Sidra Ahmed1, *, Abhimanyu Paliwal2
1Student, B.A. LL.B. (Honours in Adjudication and Justicing), IX Semester, Maharashtra National Law University, Nagpur, India
2Student, LL.M., II Semester, Maharashtra National Law University, Nagpur, India
*Corresponding author. Email: sidraahmed@nlunagpur.ac.in
Corresponding Author
Sidra Ahmed
Available Online 26 December 2025.
DOI
10.2991/978-2-38476-515-7_3How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Cyber Espionage; State Responsibility; Attribution; etc
Abstract

Cyber espionage is a clandestine activity that uses digital tools to target governments, corporations and vital infrastructure and has become a major challenge for the developing field of international law. Although cyber espionage is not expressly prohibited under international law, the practice raises serious legal concerns, particularly regarding the violation of sovereignty and difficulty in attribution. By examining the applicability of traditional legal principles in cyberspace, this research investigates the relationship between state responsibility and cyber espionage. This paper highlights the shortcomings of current frameworks and the lack of legally binding standards governing cyber espionage by drawing on the Draft Articles on State Responsibility, the Tallinn Manual and case studies such as GhostNet and Solar Winds. It emphasizes how attribution and norm-building will have an influence on any future legal responses. The paper concludes with policy suggestions that support the creation of a multilateral legal framework to combat cyber espionage and uphold the idea of state accountability in cyberspace.

Copyright
© 2025 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Download article (PDF)

<Previous Article In Volume
Next Article In Volume>
Volume Title
Proceedings of the International Conference on Law and Technology (ICLT 2025)
Series
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research
Publication Date
26 December 2025
ISBN
978-2-38476-515-7
ISSN
2352-5398
DOI
10.2991/978-2-38476-515-7_3How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2025 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Cite this article

risenwbib
TY  - CONF
AU  - Sidra Ahmed
AU  - Abhimanyu Paliwal
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/26
TI  - Cyber Espionage and the Limits of State Responsibility
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Law and Technology (ICLT 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 15
EP  - 26
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-515-7_3
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-515-7_3
ID  - Ahmed2025
ER  -