Socio-political effects of Active Cyber Defence measures

This paper compares public and political attitudes across a range of countries to systems for monitoring and surveillance of internet usage. U.S. and Russian data collection and mining systems are taken as case studies. There are wide variations in societal acceptability of these systems based on the perceived acceptable balance between personal privacy and national security. Disclosures of covert internet monitoring by U.S. and other government agencies since mid-2013 have not led to a widespread public rejection of this capability in the U.S. or Europe, while in Russia, internet users show acceptance of limitations on privacy as normal and necessary. An incipient trend in EU states toward legitimisation of real-time internet monitoring is described.