Extending The Law Of War To Cyberspace

Source: Tom Gjelten, NPR.

Many legal experts, diplomats and military commanders around the world are now debating how to extend the law of war to cyberspace. The emergence of electronic and cyberwar-fighting capabilities is the most important military development in decades, but it is not yet clear how existing treaties and conventions might apply in this new domain of conflict.

However, uncertainty about the legal and ethical limits of state behavior in cyberspace could have disastrous consequences.”If nations don’t know what the rules are, all sorts of accidental problems might arise,” says Harvard law professor Jack Goldsmith. “One nation might do something that another nation takes to be an act of war, even when the first nation did not intend it to be an act of war.”

Under the U.N. Charter, states have the right to go to war if they come under an “armed attack” from another state. But there is no consensus yet on what that right means in the event of an attack on a country’s computer networks. One important consideration is whether the attack is the work of a lone hacker, a criminal group or a government, as the law of war applies primarily to conflict between states.

The purpose of the activity is also relevant. Michael Hayden, having directed both the National Security Agency and the CIA, would not include an effort by one country to break into another country’s computer system to steal information or plans.