ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes and evaluates the transformation in purposes, means, targets, and actors of espionage. It offers definition of cyberspace and further elaborates on its regulation. Cyberspace is defined by the United States Department of Defense (US DoD) as a global domain within the information environment consisting of the interdependent networks of information technology infrastructures and resident data, including the Internet, telecommunications networks, computer systems, and embedded processors and controllers. The chapter focuses on illustrating the fact that states are conducting economic cyberespionage activities and trying to find and adopt counter measures in which all attacking and defending activities provide a basis for state practice. In 2015, several research companies working on cyber intelligence revealed that China-based cyber actors have carried out intrusion activities on targets across Southeast Asia, including ASEAN. The chapter outlines several incidents and operations that would constitute a legal base for state practice in the creation of customary international law.
