CYBER-TERRORISM AS A NON-STATE CYBER WARFARE: AN OVERVIEW

One of the greatest challenges of the law is keeping up with the advancement of technology. As the latter seems unavoidable, the development of legal norms should follow, particularly in IHL, where the appearance of new methods and means of warfare is able to threaten the necessary balance of this body of norm, between humanity and military necessity. The predominance of today’s information technology in all the aspect of public and private life undeniably offered a wide range of amazing benefits but also came with new forms of vulnerabilities. Cyber-security has therefore, since decades, became a primarily concern for governments and security policy experts. In the context of an overwhelming reliance of military capacities on computer systems and digital networks, the potential threat of cyber warfare seems to gradually leave the domain of science-fiction and open war-fighting to a fifth digital domain beyond land, sea, air and outer space. If the applicability of international law and the core principles of IHL to cyberspace is not controversial, challenges appears when we try to find out “how” these fundamental humanitarian principles will work out in this new domain. Shortcomings in relation to the “uniqueness” of cyberspace already appear with the current rules of IHL, particularly in the light of an effective protection for civilian networks . Despite the unstoppable involvement of cyber capacities in future warfare and the challenges it represent for the rule of the law in IHL, the absence of clear and global standards of “cyber conduct” is striking. Potential solutions for regulation and adaptability of IHL to these new technologies will also be inquired.

This article seeks to shed some light on the application of international humanitarian law (IHL), otherwise known as the law of armed conflict or the laws of war, to the phenomenon of cyber warfare.

International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research, 2023

The issues of cyber-warfare and cyber-attacks have become problematic issues. These are very efficient and economical methods to attack any nation compared to conventional weapons. A country does not need fully trained army to wage a war these days. A country with the help of few computer engineers or hackers can attack other country and launch attacks. Such attacks could be devastating. Existing laws, such as IHL are not well equipped to handle the issue of cyber warfare. The cyber-attacks are already happening and there is every possibility that the number of cyber-attacks will increase in the near future. Computers and technology will only improve as time progresses, which is why the legal grey area of cyber warfare should be clarified in order to help nations understand and comply with international rules that will limit the potential harm that cyber weapons can have. Existing international conventions provide minimum regulatory framework to this phenomenon. It has therefore; be...

Journal of Politics and Law

Cyber warfare represents new kinds of weapons in the present era that have the potential to change the battlefields. The different nature of these types of weapons and their ability to create massive and widespread damage to critical infrastructure of a state, subject the traditional means of resort to force to change and is indicative of the importance that the international community must come to some consensus on the meaning of cyber warfare with in the existing jus ad bellum paradigm and legislate its governing rules, On the other hand, the inherent rights of victim states in self-defense must be supported and by detailed explanations of the governing rules for the method of attribution of responsibility to governments committing cyber-attacks, actions must be taken to prevent escape of these governments from the consequences of their illegal actions. In fact, in this article with an analytical method we will examine the issue of whether cyber attacks could be considered as an a...

This article deals with the notion of “cyber warfare” within the context of international humanitarian law. As a first step, the terms of “cyber warfare” and “cyber attack” are clarified. Subsequently, an effort is made to look into whether and, if so, under what kind of circumstances, a cyber operation can trigger or amount to an armed conflict, by employing the traditional distinction between an international armed conflict and a non-international armed conflict. However, two more criteria are suggested – a consequential approach and the affinity of cyber operations with military operations, according to which international humanitarian law would regulate a cyber operation occurring within the context of an existing armed conflict. Lastly, an analysis of cyber incidents – including “Stuxnet” – is provided, which contributes to the identification of the most important challenge international humanitarian law faces with regard to cyber warfare: attribution of conduct.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2013

Today in the 21 st century the internet is the life and blood of the modern economy. Whatever the field is, it is fully dependent on cyberspace. In powerful countries like U.S.A, Russia, Germany, China the control of these cyber units if fully with the military agencies only. Many researchers in this field believes that, due the high dependence of Military services on internet the fifth dimension for global war is now opened, which is more dynamic and powerful. Banking, industry, infrastructure, and education all the modern facilities provided by the state to its citizen are to full extent dependent on cyberspace for better results.

The law of war is part of who we are, it is part of our military heritage. Warfare may have changed shape, methods, and technologies – but the concept of one group of people battling another group of people defensively, due to religious conflict, balance of power, economy, or otherwise, remains constant to this day. The primary issues surrounding the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) international security can be separated into three main concerns. First, establishment of internationally agreed-upon legal definitions of the terms surrounding cyberspace and, cyberspace, and international security must be created. Second, to be addressed in a later paper, escalation scales must be produced by which each of those infractions can be judged and options for defensive retaliatory measures can be considered. Third, also to be addressed by a later paper, the methods by which assessment, attribution, and accountability are to be conducted11 must be applied to suit each of the legal definitions. Based upon category and placement on the new escalation scale, LOAC can be applied to new rules of engagement. The goal is to identify a cyber event, then properly categorize it based on internationally agreed upon parameters, assess the severity against an escalation scale in order to determine a proper response, attribute the incident to a state or non-state actor, find the parties who perpetrated the incident, and strive to achieve justice.

Handbook of Research on Civil Society and National Security in the Era of Cyber Warfare

The post-Cold War reality has brought many changes that challenge political leaders, planners and operators. Using cyberspace to accomplish their political objectives, non-state actors and states have opened serious legal debates over the applicability of the international law of armed conflict principles in cyberspace. In this context, the article explores how the basic principles of International law of armed conflict will apply to the protection of the civilian population from the future cyber conflict. To accomplish this article addresses the ius ad bellum and the ius in bello aspects of cyber conflict.

The toolkit of statecraft has many an item in it; war and its related concepts are but one tool in it. Over the centuries, the international law related to war has been divided into two distinct spheres: jus ad bellum (law of war) and jus in bello (law in war). The law of war deals with the justifications or reasons leading to war, whereas, the law in war deals with the conduct of the war. The practice of the two spheres is not as neat as the distinction. To this confusion of the practice, must we add, the emerging concept of the fifth-dimension warfare. The fifth-dimension warfare has many related concepts like information warfare, irregular warfare, cyber warfare, grey war etc. 'Fifth-dimension warfare' is preferred by the US military. It sounds more convincing for the following reasons:

2014

Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials contained in any third party website referenced in this work. P r e v i e w -C o p y r i g h t e d M a t e r i a l h t t p : / / w w w . p b o o k s h o p . c o m 1 Identifying the Problem and the Applicable Law I. The Emergence of the Cyber Threat to International Security Modern societies have become increasingly dependent on computers, computer systems, and networks, with vital services now relying on the internet. 1 This 'digital revolution' has involved not only civilian infrastructures, but also the armed forces: as The Economist noted in a famous article, '[b] ombs are guided by GPS satellites; drones are piloted remotely from across the world; fighter planes and warships are now huge data-processing centres; even the ordinary foot-soldier is being wired up'. 2 Digitalization, however, is a double-edged sword: as the US Deputy Secretary of Defense has emphasized, '[i]n the 21st Century, bits and bytes can be as threatening as bullets and bombs' . 3 In fact, the more digitally reliant a state is, the more vulnerable to cyber attacks: if computer networks become the society's 'nerve system', incapacitating them may mean paralysing the country. 4 Cyber security is likely to acquire increasing importance in the next few years. 5 The threat no longer comes exclusively from the proverbial teenage hacker, but also from ideologically motivated individuals ('hacktivists'), states, and criminal 1 While a computer is '[a] device that processes data', a computer system is '[o]ne or more interconnected computers with associated software and peripheral devices' (Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), p 258). A computer network links two or more computers or computer systems (also known as 'network nodes') to exchange data by using wired, wireless, or mixed technology.