Dr Irene Couzigou participated in the first workshop of a new collaboration in International Law between the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow from 8 to 10 April.
Dr Couzigou presented a paper on the increasing State-private actor partnership in securing cyberspace. In light of the ineffective action of States in preventing, and reacting to, cyber attacks, private actors, whether multinational information corporations (Google, Facebook, etc.) or private cyber security companies, have reacted to harmful international operations themselves, outside the international law framework and without any coordination with a State. Dr Couzigou explained that private hack-back activities raise many legal and political issues. Therefore, she argued that only a few licenced cyber security companies should be given the right to conduct active cyber defence.
