Going public about cyber attacks: public threat sensitivity and support for escalation in the United States and Russia
Journal: Journal of Cybersecurity
Year: 2025

Abstract When governments go public with accusations of cyberattacks by rival powers, what impact does it have on public sensitivity to cyber threats and public demand for defensive or possibly offensive countermeasures? Based on an original survey experiment in nationwide surveys in the USA (N = 1336) and Russia (N = 2000) during May–June 2021, we find that Americans are more sensitive to cyberattacks than Russians, which could reflect greater US exposure to and government priming on foreign th