Conceptualizing cyber crises

Abstract Despite its rising relevance, the cyber crisis is a largely unexplored phenomenon empirically and conceptually. This article suggests that cyber crises can be understood specifically as transboundary crises. Through the comparative analysis of two cases of cyber crises, Estonia 2007 and UK 2017, the study investigates whether the time gap and the difference in cyberattack type between the cases (untargeted ransomware vs. targeted DDoS) correlate with variation in transboundary crisis features and crisis management challenges during the performance of central crisis management tasks in the national settings of the cases. The analysis identifies some variation between the cases in terms of transboundary crisis features but finds that the cases entailed similar prominent crisis management challenges during the performance of central crisis management tasks. Implications are discussed in terms of how to advance our understanding of cyber crises and the practical strategic management requirements they entail.