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The Use of Denial-of-service Attacks during Elections in Nondemocratic Regimes

Dados Bibliográficos

ID6284584
AutoresPhilipp M Lutscher (0000-0001-6176-7297, University of Konstanz), Nils B Weidmann (0000-0002-4791-4913, University of Konstanz, autor correspondente), Miguel E Roberts (0000-0001-6900-4366, University of California San Diego), Margaret E Roberts (Department of Political Science, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA), Mattijs Jonker (0000-0001-5174-9140, University of Twente), Alistair King (Center for Applied Internet Data Analysis, San Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA), Alberto Dainotti (0000-0001-6444-5656, Center for Applied Internet Data Analysis, San Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA)
Ano2020
Volume64
Fascículo2-3
Páginas373-401
Data de publicação2020-02-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Conflict Resolution (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0022-0027 • E-ISSN: 1552-8766
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0022002719861676
OpenAlexW2964277065
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas17
Referências citadas45

In this article, we study the political use of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, a particular form of cyberattack that disables web services by flooding them with high levels of data traffic. We argue that websites in nondemocratic regimes should be especially prone to this type of attack, particularly around political focal points such as elections. This is due to two mechanisms: governments employ DoS attacks to censor regime-threatening information, while at the same time, activists use DoS attacks as a tool to publicly undermine the government’s authority. We analyze these mechanisms by relying on measurements of DoS attacks based on large-scale Internet traffic data. Our results show that in authoritarian countries, elections indeed increase the number of DoS attacks. However, these attacks do not seem to be directed primarily against the country itself but rather against other states that serve as hosts for news websites from this country

Authoritarianism · Business · Computer security · Democracy · Denial · Denial-of-service attack · Flooding (psychology · Government (linguistics · Internet privacy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · The Internet · Computer Science · Internet Traffic Analysis and Secure E-voting · Law · Network Security and Intrusion Detection · Psychology · Spam and Phishing Detection