Expelling embassy staff is within the range of acceptable responses, so good for Albania here. The vast majority of nation-state cyberattacks get far less response.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vault_7#Marble_framework
Google "security attribution problem" if you are unfamiliar with the topic, it is a big one.
I sympathize with [entity] -> Despite evidence, I cannot admit it was entity.
I dislike [entity] -> despite lack of evidence, the plausibility allows me to attribute it to [entity].
> "In its release, WikiLeaks described the primary purpose of "Marble" as to insert foreign language text into the malware to mask viruses, trojans and hacking attacks, making it more difficult for them to be tracked to the CIA and to cause forensic investigators to falsely attribute code to the wrong nation."
When you disguise yourself to look like somebody else when doing something nefarious, knowing that you will be mistaken for that somebody else, that's a false flag.
> A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party.
For example: Stuxnet was one of many responses to Iran's nuclear weapons program. Another response was, allegedly [0], assassination of some senior scientists. Attribution is still disputed about the latter, but not the former.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_program_of_Iran#Possib...
Is anyone seriously considering that it was not Mossad/CIA? Cui bono?
>Countries should start responding to cyberattacks the same as if a black helicopter landed and a team of commandos damaged or stole the equipment. The intention is the same and the effect is the same, so the mechanism isn't important.
remember stuxnet and what if the roles were reversed, what would your response have been?
Iran should have asked for help to retaliate against attackers but since they did not have friends, they could not retaliate. But, if the same thing happens with Israel, then it becomes a matter of threatening world peace ad everyone must unite against a common enemy. Cool.
Maybe fucking with someone else's computers is not actually worth murdering anyone over...
Edit: I actually like this new form of "war" where no one dies, we just DDOS websites and people cannot renew their driving licenses or enrich uranium for a period of time.
In truth they just want the public to hate them. They might not have a clue on who did it.