And the motivation to claim credit for a cyber attack on a government or institution depends on both the goals of the attack as well as the characteristics of the attacker, according to one of the first studies into the voluntary claiming of cyber security operations that is co-authored by a UConn political scientist.

The type of attacker – whether a state or a non-state actor such as a terrorist group – determines if credit is claimed for a cyber attack and how it is communicated, according to the study, "Rethinking Secrecy in Cyberspace: The Politics or Voluntary Attribution," forthcoming in the Journal of Global Security Studies. Co-authors of the study are Evan Perkoski, assistant professor of political science at UConn, and Michael Poznansky, assistant professor of political science at University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Affairs.