Attributing Digital Covert Action: the curious case of WikiSaudileaks

Abstract

ABSTRACT How can digital covert action be attributed? This paper revisits one of the most complex, most significant, and most mysterious digital covert actions of our time: a 2015 hack-and-leak case known among investigators as ‘WikiSaudiLeaks’ that so far has evaded attribution. We argue that WikiSaudiLeaks was not a stand-alone event, but a puzzle piece in a larger covert action campaign that involved advanced computer network exploitation, computer network attack, persistent deception, and a creative influence and disinformation effort. By disintegrating the larger event into its components, limited attribution becomes possible. We present the most detailed and comprehensive investigation of this case to date, attribute at least one component of the larger event to Iranian intelligence, and draw conceptional conclusions.