Books by Heather Harrison Dinniss
Cyber Warfare and the Laws of War
The information revolution has transformed both modern societies and the way in which they conduc... more The information revolution has transformed both modern societies and the way in which they conduct warfare. Cyberwar and the Laws of War analyses the status of computer network attacks in international law and examines their treatment under the laws of armed conflict. The first part of the book deals with the resort to force by states and discusses the threshold issues of force and armed attack by examining the permitted responses against such attacks. The second part offers a comprehensive analysis of the applicability of international humanitarian law to computer network attacks. By examining the legal framework regulating these attacks, Heather Harrison Dinniss addresses the issues associated with this method of attack in terms of the current law and explores the underlying debates which are shaping the modern laws applicable in armed conflict.
Papers by Heather Harrison Dinniss
The world in which we live and fight
Cyberwarfare and the Laws of War
The Threat of Cyber Terrorism and What International Law Should (Try To) Do about It
Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, 2018
The specter of cyber terrorism is one that has been both bandied and seriously debated since at l... more The specter of cyber terrorism is one that has been both bandied and seriously debated since at least the late 1990s. Certainly, by the end of 2017, it looked as if the era of hackers accessing and manipulating critical infrastructure for political purposes, the most likely mechanism for conducting a cyber-terrorist act, had truly arrived. Electrical blackouts had been caused in successive years in Ukraine,1 North Korean hackers had breached an American energy utility,2 and Russian hackers had penetrated not only a nuclear power plant but had obtained hands-on access to an American energy utility’s control systems.3 More disturbingly in an escalation of these types of cyber-attacks, reports emerged of an advanced attack against a petrochemical company with a plant in Saudi Arabia, apparently designed to sabotage the firm’s operations and trigger a lethal explosion.4 Similar (non-cyber related) explosions at petrochemical plants in China and Mexico resulted in the deaths of several employees, injured hundreds, and forced evacuations of surrounding communities. While all of the investigators involved in the matter believe the attack was most likely intended to cause a fatal explosion, they have all been tightlipped about any suspected perpetrator of the attacks and even the company affected. The fact of the compromise of the widely used Schneider Triconex safety controllers raises uncomfortable speculation about who was behind the attack and for what purpose. It is no secret that terrorist organizations such as the so-called Islamic State (IS or its Arabic acronym Daesh) have made great strides in utilizing information and communication technologies (ICTs) for encrypted communications, recruitment, propaganda, and fundraising. However, to date, no terrorist group appears to have utilized these technologies to directly launch an attack. In April 2015, it appeared that this pattern had changed. TV5Monde, a French television network, was attacked, shutting down broadcasting across eleven of the network’s channels and hijacking their associated websites and social media accounts. A group calling itself the “Cyber Caliphate,” an IS-associated group, claimed responsibility for the attack and made clear links to the terrorist attacks that had shaken France three months previously as well as the Charlie Hebdo killings.5 For a country already shaken by these kinetic terrorist attacks, the message was clearly intimidatory: “The CyberCaliphate continues its cyberjihad against the enemies of Islamic State.” Social media profile pictures were replaced by pictures of a masked Islamist fighter. Posts imploring soldiers to save their families were
Legal Aspects of Human Enhancement Technologies
New Technologies and the Law in War and Peace, 2018
Chapter 8 continues the exploration of issues raised by human enhancement technologies. Building ... more Chapter 8 continues the exploration of issues raised by human enhancement technologies. Building on the discussion in the previous chapter, this contribution begins by examining the question of whe ...
Unmanned Systems : Legal Aspects of the Use of Unmanned Systems in the Law of Armed Conflict and Human Rights Law
Unmanned Systems : Legal Aspects of the Use of Unmanned Systems in the Law of Armed Conflict and ... more Unmanned Systems : Legal Aspects of the Use of Unmanned Systems in the Law of Armed Conflict and Human Rights Law
Military Human Enhancement: Legal aspects of the use of human enhancement technologies by the armed forces
The current focus on an ever-increasing sophistication of weapons systems usually overlooks effor... more The current focus on an ever-increasing sophistication of weapons systems usually overlooks efforts of states to enhance the physical and mental capabilities of human soldiers. While such techniques and technologies have a long history (e.g. the use of drugs and alcohol in order to overcome fear and fatigue; the use of night-vision goggles etc.), they have attained a new quality. For instance, certain armed forces are introducing wearable robotics suit (Powered exoskeletons). Furthermore, the development of military applications of brain-computer interfaces continues, which would allow for direct communication between a human brain and a computer – and eventually vice-versa. These technologies raise a number of pertinent international legal issues, such as: What are the potential consequences for compliance with the rules and principles of the law of armed conflict? What implications may such technologies have for the accountability of states and individuals? And what would the use ...
The Russian-Georgian War in August of 2008 represented a long history of geostrategic conflict be... more The Russian-Georgian War in August of 2008 represented a long history of geostrategic conflict between the two nations and was based on many complex factors: geopolitical, legal, cultural, and economic. The 1992 South Ossetia War and the 1993 Abkhazian War resulted in the loss of the regions from Georgia to internationally unrecognized, pro-Russian local governments. Tensions had been building in the region for several years prior-to the initiation of conflict in August 2008. The war officially started on 7 August 2008 after several weeks of growing arguments over the future of the South Ossetian territory. Georgian troops initiated a military attack against South Ossetia and began a massive shelling of the town of Tskhinvali in response to alleged Russian provocation. Russia deployed additional combat troops to South Ossetia and retaliated with bombing raids into Georgian territory. Russia deployed naval forces to formally blockade Georgia and landed naval infantry (marines) on Abkhaz coast (near Georgia). The decisive ground combat operation of the campaign resulted in mechanized Russian military and Ossetian militia forces defeating the more lightly armed Georgian military forces in the only large-scale major ground combat of the war (battle for the town of Tskhinvali). Georgian tactical military defeat at the battle of Tskhinvali, operational defeat via Russian uncontested invasion of the western part of Georgia, unchallenged naval blockade of Georgia, and Georgian difficulty getting their media message out to the world, led to Georgia's strategic defeat in the war. The conflict forced approximately 25,000 Georgian residents to flee from ground combat as refugees into internal displacement. The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement a week later but tensions remain high to this day. Russia has failed to implement some of the terms of the ceasefire agreement, resulting in further loss of Georgian territory to Russian occupation. 1 As wars historically go, it wasn't very big, did not involve vast amounts of military forces, nor did it last long. One might argue that it was more of a typical battle or campaign framed in an ongoing long term geopolitical cold war between the combatants, a cold war punctuated with occasional outbreaks of small to large scale violence. On the surface, it represents one of many cold wars (with periodic renewals of formal national-level military conflict) fought every day on the "near abroad" of the Russian periphery. A conflict which may not end for a very, very long time. But while much of that is true, a deeper analysis of the cyberspace domain operations conducted by both sides in this conflict indicate that image is
5 Moore's Law states that computing power will double approximately every two years; Nielson's la... more 5 Moore's Law states that computing power will double approximately every two years; Nielson's law states that bandwidth for high-end users will double in the same period.
Chapter 11 Participants in Conflict – Cyber Warriors, Patriotic Hackers and the Laws of War
International Humanitarian Law and the Changing Technology of War, 2013
This chapter examines the role of those participants who are involved in cyber operations whether... more This chapter examines the role of those participants who are involved in cyber operations whether as part of a State's armed forces or as civilians directly participating in the hostilities. The requirements for lawful combatancy are reviewed with the aim of exploring how they translate into a medium where anonymity is the norm and distance and proximity are largely irrelevant. Increasing numbers of non-State actors, including so-called 'patriotic hackers' are becoming involved in conflicts and may be used as proxies by States keen to benefit from the associated advantage of plausible deniability. In light of these developments, and the ongoing debate in international legal circles regarding the concept of direct participation in hostilities, the chapter reviews the criteria that were the subject of general agreement in the ICRC expert process to provide guidance on the notion of direct participation and examines how they might apply to participants in cyber operations. Keywords:conflicts; cyber operations; cyber warriors; hostilities; ICRC; lawful combatancy; patriotic hackers
The Nature of Objects: Targeting Networks and the Challenge of Defining Cyber Military Objectives
Israel Law Review, 2015
Cyber warfare and the advent of computer network operations have forced us to look again at the c... more Cyber warfare and the advent of computer network operations have forced us to look again at the concept of the military objective. The definition set out in Article 52(2) of Additional Protocol I – that an object must by its nature, location, purpose or use, make an effective contribution to military action – is accepted as customary international law; its application in the cyber context, however, raises a number of issues which are examined in this article. First, the question of whether data may constitute a military objective is discussed. In particular, the issue of whether the requirement that the definition applies to ‘objects’ requires that the purported target must have tangible or material form. The article argues on the basis of both textual and contextual analysis that this is not required, but it contends that it may prove to be useful to differentiate between operational- and content-level data. The article then examines the qualifying contribution of military objectiv...
Glossary of selected computing terms
Cyberwarfare and the Laws of War
Selected computer network attack examples
Cyberwarfare and the Laws of War
Cyberwarfare and the Laws of War
Conventional weapons and weapons systems"); W.H. B , Weapons and the Law of Armed Con ict, Oxford... more Conventional weapons and weapons systems"); W.H. B , Weapons and the Law of Armed Con ict, Oxford, OUP, 2009, 4 (" e phrase 'means of warfare' means, for the purposes of this book, all weapons, weapons platforms, and associated equipment used directly to deliver force during hostilities" (emphasis added)). e present chapter only deals with the narrower category of " weapons".
Tom Ruys, ‘Armed Attack’ and Article 51 of the UN Charter, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010, 585 pp, hb £91.00
The Modern Law Review, 2013
A Room Full of Experts: Expert Manuals and Their Influence on the Development of International Law
Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law, Volume 23 (2020), 2022
International law studies, 2013
Keeping the CyberPeace : International Legal Aspects of Cyber Activities in Peace Operations
Dehumanization of Warfare, 2017
Soldier 2.0: Military Human Enhancement and International Law
Advances in technologies that could endow humans with physical or mental abilities that go beyond... more Advances in technologies that could endow humans with physical or mental abilities that go beyond the statistically normal level of functioning are occurring at an incredible pace. The use of these human enhancement technologies by the military, for instance in the spheres of biotechnology, cybernetics and prosthetics, raise a number of questions under the international legal frameworks governing military technology, namely the law of armed conflict and human rights law. The article examines these frameworks with a focus on weapons law, the law pertaining to the detention of and by “enhanced individuals,” the human rights of those individuals and their responsibility for the actions they take while under the influence of enhancements.
89 International Law Studies 512, 2013
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Books by Heather Harrison Dinniss
Papers by Heather Harrison Dinniss