Influencing and Exploiting Behavioral Norms in Cyberspace to Promote Ethical and Moral Conduct of Cyberwarfare

Abstract

The United States military is committed to conduct warfare within certain ethical and moral limits, generally defined by the law of armed conflict and other domestic and international laws. The law of armed conflict is the product of centuries of custom, treaties, and reciprocity in warfare and it provides a basis for the limits of cyberwarfare. However, applying these limits in cyberspace is complicated, because actors are notoriously anonymous, civilian and military infrastructure is intertwined, cyber sovereignty has not been defined, and assessing the impact of cyberattacks is exceedingly difficult. This paper explores the interaction of the principles of the law of armed conflict- military necessity, humanity, proportionality, distinction, chivalry, and neutrality with cyberspace behavioral norms- access and connectivity, trust and security, privacy and anonymity, monitoring and control- and suggests avenues to influence and exploit these norms to facilitate ethical and moral conduct of cyberwarfare.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2010
Accession Number
AD1019177

Entities

People

  • Glen R. Shilland

Organizations

  • Air War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Cyber

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Computer Networks
  • Congress
  • Cybersecurity
  • Cyberspace Operations
  • Electronic Mail
  • Employment
  • International Law
  • International Organizations
  • International Relations
  • Military History
  • Military Science
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • Network Protocols
  • Personnel Management
  • Treaties
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Agent-Based Social Robotics and Mobile-Assisted Learning in Virtual Environments.
  • Irregular Warfare and Special Operations Cyberspace Operations against Adversarial Threats.
  • Strategic Security Studies

Technology Areas

  • Cyber
  • Cyber - Legality in Cyberspace