The US$100 million (S$135 million) lawsuit that Mondelez, the maker of Oreo and Cadbury chocolate, has brought against Zurich Insurance Group shows that governments should be more careful about identifying the would-be culprits in putative cyberwars: Such claims can have unintended consequences and can sometimes harm businesses.

In June 2017, a malware program dubbed ExPetr or NotPetya wreaked havoc at Danish shipping giant Maersk, US pharmaceutical titan Merck and a number of other big corporations, including Mondelez. NotPetya used an exploit known as EternalBlue, created by the United States National Security Agency and leaked earlier in 2017.