The rise of responsible behavior: Western commercial reports on Western cyber threat actors

Commercial threat reporting plays a pivotal role in shaping public perceptions of cyber conflict, providing insights into threats and behavior of key actors. This article examines the evolving practices of Western cybersecurity companies in reporting on Western threat actors, focusing on the emergence of “responsible behavior” by the companies, which reflects a delicate balance between corporate interests and national security considerations. Through a mixed-methods approach, including statistical analysis of threat reports between 2010–2022 and selected empirical vignettes, we document a notable decline in both the quantity and depth of such reports. The findings point to a transition from an earlier “Age of Innocence” driven by business motives to a decision-making process that is increasingly influenced by geopolitical considerations. This shift introduces systematic biases into the threat reporting landscape, involving political distortions that impact the broader comprehension of cyber conflict dynamics.