state actors
Countries as players
State actors are governments and their official agencies, distinguished from private individuals, corporations, or other non-governmental entities.
The term appears most often in legal and political contexts where the distinction matters: State actors are bound by constitutional constraints that don't apply to private parties.
In cybersecurity, state actors are government-sponsored hackers: The attack bore the hallmarks of a state actor.
- governmentAuthority over a state
- espionageCovert intelligence gathering
- intelligenceMental ability, cognitive capacity
- intelligence agencyOrganization gathering secret information
- covertIntentionally concealed
covert operations · black ops · plausible deniability · sovereignty · diplomacy · cyber · cyber attack · warfare · cold war · agencies · operatives · sanctions · nations · foreign policy · geopolitics · spies · surveillance · military
- Global Politicsforeign affairs, international affairs, global affairs, world politics, foreign relations
- cybercriminalshacker, hackers, scammer, scammers, phishers
- disinformationdisinformation, misinformation, misinformation campaigns, fake news, propaganda
- Cyberespionagespyware, intelligence gathering, covert operations, credential theft, infiltration
- Cyberwarfarecyberattack, cyber warfare, cyberwar, cyber attack, cyber weapons
- online manipulationastroturfing, bots, bot farms, disinformation, fake news
state actorsnon-state actors
Entities lacking governmental authority
multinational corporations · NGOs · individuals · hacktivists · private sector
state actorsterrorists
Those using violence politically
outlaws · pirates · criminal networks · hacktivists · insurgents
state actorsindividuals
Separate, distinct people
grassroots movements · cells · small groups · amateur actors · hobbyists
state, actor, states, actors, stated, stating, statement, statements, statehood