In an increasingly virtual world, data breaches continuously plague large corporations. These companies have few options to keep their data out of the hands of persistent hackers, who often discover ways around any safeguards that may be in place. It seems as though any measures companies are currently able to employ merely delay the inevitable breach that will bring with it the potential loss of both customers’ data and their faith in the privacy and security of their information. These attacks can be debilitating to corporations; thus, it seems only fair to provide them the ability to take active measures to defend against cybercriminals. Some have argued that allowing hacking victims to retaliate against their attackers could help reduce cybercrime. Others suggest that these counterstrikes may lead to an increased prevalence of attacks rather than deter initial attackers. This note will argue that the use of beacons—code hidden in a company’s files that alerts the company of the files’ theft— should be permitted as an effective and proportional cyber-self-defense measure.
