IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jocore/v64y2020i2-3p373-401.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

At Home and Abroad: The Use of Denial-of-service Attacks during Elections in Nondemocratic Regimes

Author

Listed:
  • Philipp M. Lutscher
  • Nils B. Weidmann
  • Margaret E. Roberts
  • Mattijs Jonker
  • Alistair King
  • Alberto Dainotti

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Philipp M. Lutscher & Nils B. Weidmann & Margaret E. Roberts & Mattijs Jonker & Alistair King & Alberto Dainotti, 2020. "At Home and Abroad: The Use of Denial-of-service Attacks during Elections in Nondemocratic Regimes," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 64(2-3), pages 373-401, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jocore:v:64:y:2020:i:2-3:p:373-401
    DOI: 10.1177/0022002719861676
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022002719861676
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0022002719861676?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hobbs, William R. & Roberts, Margaret E., 2018. "How Sudden Censorship Can Increase Access to Information," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 112(3), pages 621-636, August.
    2. Anna Lührmann & Marcus Tannenberg & Staffan I. Lindberg, 2018. "Regimes of the World (RoW): Opening New Avenues for the Comparative Study of Political Regimes," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(1), pages 60-77.
    3. King, Gary & Pan, Jennifer & Roberts, Margaret E., 2013. "How Censorship in China Allows Government Criticism but Silences Collective Expression," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 107(2), pages 326-343, May.
    4. Ruben Enikolopov & Alexey Makarin & Maria Petrova, 2020. "Social Media and Protest Participation: Evidence From Russia," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(4), pages 1479-1514, July.
    5. Anna, Petrenko, 2016. "Мaркування готової продукції як складова частина інформаційного забезпечення маркетингової діяльності підприємств овочепродуктового підкомплексу," Agricultural and Resource Economics: International Scientific E-Journal, Agricultural and Resource Economics: International Scientific E-Journal, vol. 2(1), March.
    6. King, Gary & Pan, Jennifer & Roberts, Margaret E., 2017. "How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, Not Engaged Argument," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 111(3), pages 484-501, August.
    7. Yuyu Chen & David Y. Yang, 2019. "The Impact of Media Censorship: 1984 or Brave New World?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(6), pages 2294-2332, June.
    8. Wilkins, Arjun S., 2018. "To Lag or Not to Lag?: Re-Evaluating the Use of Lagged Dependent Variables in Regression Analysis," Political Science Research and Methods, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(2), pages 393-411, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Freyburg, Tina & Garbe, Lisa & Wavre, Véronique, 2022. "The political power of internet business: A comprehensive dataset of Telecommunications Ownership and Control (TOSCO)," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue Online fi, pages 1-1.
    2. Tina Freyburg & Lisa Garbe & Véronique Wavre, 2023. "The political power of internet business: A comprehensive dataset of Telecommunications Ownership and Control (TOSCO)," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 573-600, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ekaterina Zhuravskaya & Maria Petrova & Ruben Enikolopov, 2020. "Political Effects of the Internet and Social Media," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 12(1), pages 415-438, August.
    2. Boxell, Levi & Steinert-Threlkeld, Zachary, 2022. "Taxing dissent: The impact of a social media tax in Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    3. Davide Cantoni & David Y Yang & Noam Yuchtman & Y Jane Zhang, 2019. "Protests as Strategic Games: Experimental Evidence from Hong Kong's Antiauthoritarian Movement," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(2), pages 1021-1077.
    4. Sergei Guriev & Nikita Melnikov & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, 2021. "3G Internet and Confidence in Government," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 136(4), pages 2533-2613.
    5. Georgy Egorov & Konstantin Sonin, 2024. "The Political Economics of Non-democracy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 62(2), pages 594-636, June.
    6. Rafael Jimenez-Duran, 2021. "The Economics of Content Moderation: Theory and Experimental Evidence from Hate Speech on Twitter," Natural Field Experiments 00754, The Field Experiments Website.
    7. David Karpa & Torben Klarl & Michael Rochlitz, 2021. "Artificial Intelligence, Surveillance, and Big Data," Bremen Papers on Economics & Innovation 2108, University of Bremen, Faculty of Business Studies and Economics.
    8. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/5744igqofr9qr9hjd2eiomr7qc is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Sonin, Konstantin & Egorov, Georgy, 2019. "Persuasion on Networks," CEPR Discussion Papers 13723, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Levi Boxell & Zachary Steinert-Threlkeld, 2019. "Taxing dissent: The impact of a social media tax in Uganda," Papers 1909.04107, arXiv.org.
    11. repec:ehl:lserod:100316 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Christian Gläßel & Katrin Paula, 2020. "Sometimes Less Is More: Censorship, News Falsification, and Disapproval in 1989 East Germany," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 64(3), pages 682-698, July.
    13. Leonardo Bursztyn & Davide Cantoni & David Y. Yang & Noam Yuchtman & Y. Jane Zhang, 2021. "Persistent Political Engagement: Social Interactions and the Dynamics of Protest Movements," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 233-250, June.
    14. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/5744igqofr9qr9hjd2eiomr7qc is not listed on IDEAS
    15. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/5744igqofr9qr9hjd2eiomr7qc is not listed on IDEAS
    16. David Karpa & Torben Klarl & Michael Rochlitz, 2021. "Artificial Intelligence, Surveillance, and Big Data," Papers 2111.00992, arXiv.org.
    17. Jun Liu & Jingyi Zhao, 2021. "More than plain text: Censorship deletion in the Chinese social media," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 72(1), pages 18-31, January.
    18. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/5744igqofr9qr9hjd2eiomr7qc is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Leopoldo Fergusson & Carlos Molina, 2020. "Facebook Causes Protests," HiCN Working Papers 323, Households in Conflict Network.
    20. Francesco Capozza & Ingar Haaland & Christopher Roth & Johannes Wohlfart, 2021. "Studying Information Acquisition in the Field: A Practical Guide and Review," CEBI working paper series 21-15, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. The Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI).
    21. Erin Baggott Carter & Brett L. Carter, 2021. "Propaganda and Protest in Autocracies," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 65(5), pages 919-949, May.
    22. Donati, Dante, 2023. "Mobile Internet access and political outcomes: Evidence from South Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    23. Iacus Stefano M. & Salini Silvia & Siletti Elena & Porro Giuseppe, 2020. "Controlling for Selection Bias in Social Media Indicators through Official Statistics: a Proposal," Journal of Official Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 36(2), pages 315-338, June.
    24. Cantoni, Davide & Heizlsperger, Louis-Jonas & Yang, David Y. & Yuchtman, Noam & Zhang, Y. Jane, 2022. "The fundamental determinants of protest participation: Evidence from Hong Kong’s antiauthoritarian movement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    25. Kun Heo & Antoine Zerbini, 2024. "Segment and rule: Modern censorship in authoritarian regimes," Discussion Papers 2024-04, Nottingham Interdisciplinary Centre for Economic and Political Research (NICEP).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jocore:v:64:y:2020:i:2-3:p:373-401. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://pss.la.psu.edu/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.