Stakeholder #2

NATO

Addicted04. "North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Orthographic Projection" 10/8/2009 via wikipedia. Attribution 3.0 Unported

The Stakeholder

     NATO stands for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It is an alliance between various North American and European States that includes countries such as the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom. 

NATO started as a system of mutual defense from aggressive states. It survived throughout the Cold War and currently has 28 members. One of the most powerful documents of the NATO treaty is Article 5, which states that member states have to assist any member that comes under armed attacked. After the recent surge of cyber attacks, many questions have risen in regards to this article. 

Also, one of the members nations, the United States, is heavily involved in the Stuxnet controversy. As for Israel, it is not a member of NATO, but it is an ally of the United States, which indirectly means that it is covered under the NATO treaty. This is important because the United States is arguably the most powerful and influential NATO member.

Specific Claims

     One claim from a NATO member is that they were not involved. This comes from the United States. However, they do not explicitly claim this. Instead, they neither deny nor confirm involvement.Nonetheless, unnamed officials of the U.S. have been saying that there was U.S. involvement.

This claims is  riddled with holes, but its understandable why. Stuxnet is a matter of national security and for the U.S. to claim responsibility could spark international out lash. Nonetheless, all the evidence points to U.S. and Israel involvement. 

The second claim from NATO is that the attack of was an "act of force." This means that the attack was illegal and violated international law.  This is not really an issue for NATO directly since Iran is not a NATO member, but it brings up questions. What would happen if a NATO member was attacked by a cyber weapon. 

This claim makes a lot of sense. Though there were really no laws against cyber warfare at the time, this attack did cause physical harm. 

The final claim by NATO was actually a 300 page manual published by it legal experts to address situations involving cyber attacks such as Stuxnet. It would assist in deciding whether to implement Article 5 in the case of another cyber attack. It would further enforce the fact that the attack allegedly conducted by the U.S. was illegal.

Well they have a pretty solid claim here. It's 300 pages long compiled by the best lawyers NATO had to offer

The only true statement that has opposition here is the one made by NATO member, the United States. Whistle blowers, such as Edward Snowden, U.S. officials, and security analyst all claim that the U.S. was the driving force behind Stuxnet.