Holding State-Sponsored Hackers and Other Cyber Proxies to Account

Eaton et al.'s March 2026 Chatham House paper examines the spectrum of non-state actors involved in Russia's cyber and information operations against Ukraine: GRU contractors, cybercriminals operating under state direction, independent hacktivists, and hybrid actors whose relationship to the Russian state is deliberately ambiguous. The paper develops legal and policy frameworks for attribution and accountability across this spectrum.

The deliberate cultivation of ambiguity about the state-directedness of cyber operations is a core feature of Russian hybrid warfare — it enables deniability while achieving operational effects. Eaton et al.'s framework for assessing degrees of state responsibility across the proxy spectrum provides practitioners and policymakers with tools for attribution decisions that are legally defensible and policy-relevant.