As cyberattacks and data leaks increasingly become a part of daily news, their impact is more noticeable across every field of society. More importantly, cyberattacks with significant political and civil implications have begun affecting electoral systems—a serious threat to democracy and international human rights. Indeed, the increasing number of cyberattacks has direct implications for the rights laid out in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR). For instance, the “Ghostwriter” attack of 2017 targeted elections of several European Union (EU) member states to foment distrust in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Following this series of attacks, the EU formally assigned responsibility to Russian operators in September 2021, implying undue external interference on political systems had occurred. Also in September 2021, a suspected internal cyberattack to Hungarian polling systems caused nationwide election interference, hindering free participation in public affairs, freedom of expression, and voting rights. [1] Thus, as data analytics can facilitate interference with civil and political liberties as well as enable armed attacks and military strategies, data and cybersecurity rights—the rights determining how to collect, process, use, or disclose personal and private data information—should be seen as a logical extension of human rights.

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