Unilateral Cyber Sanctions and Global Cybersecurity Law-Making

Since recently, cyber sanctions – unilateral economic restrictions punishing actors responsible for malicious cyber-enabled behavior – have become an important but often overlooked mechanism for defining and flagging malign behavior in cyberspace, which otherwise remains unregulated under international law. First the United States (US), then the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) have introduced laws authorizing use of cyber sanctions. In early December 2021, Australia followed the pattern and the law that allows use of sanctions in response to significant malicious cyber activity was passed.