The Article I have chosen to review is “Cyber Attacks, Cyber Threats, and Attitudes toward cybersecurity policies” by Keren Snider, Ryan Shandler, Shay Zandani, Daphna Canettii. The authors hypothesize that the public would be more receptive to stricter government cybersecurity policies immediately following a cyberattack. They conducted a controlled survey of 1022 Israeli citizens where they were shown simulated news reports of cyber-attacks with varying levels of lethality. The control group did not watch any report.
The principles of relativism, empiricism and ethical neutrality are all prevalent in this paper. The hypothesis is about how the views of the public change relative to current events. Empiricism and ethical neutrality are prevalent because some of the laws that are discussed are remarkably similar to the controversial Patriot Act and the Authors stay away from the ramifications of this law and maintain their focus on their hypothesis.
After conducting the tests, it was discovered that exposure to lethal cyber-attacks affected political behavior in a comparable manner as a terrorist attack would. After viewing news reports of a lethal cyber-attack, the respondents were more likely to waive civil liberties and consent to tighter and more intrusive security. In general, both respondents exposed to lethal and non-lethal cyber-attacks showed a willingness to support stricter cybersecurity policies of varying intrusiveness. This study plays heavily on the psychology of the respondents of the survey and how these simulated events affect their perceived safety and what they are willing to give up to maintain it. This also plays into the concept of cyber victimization we have discussed. The authors provide a look into the minds of the marginalized lower classes and how they respond to perceived attacks and the effect it has on their willingness to accept laws that could violate their privacy. Marginalized groups are typically less likely to accept intrusive laws or policies (like the Patriot Act) due to distrust in authority.
This article makes multiple contributions to the sciences by discussing the psychological effect of a cyber-attack on the general public, combined with varying levels of lethality would affect their political views on cyber law.