CYBER WARFARE GOVERNANCE: EVALUATION OF CURRENT INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS ON THE OFFENSIVE USE OF CYBER
Abstract
The increased use of cyberspace on the battlefield has begun to blur the lines of what was understood to be acceptable according to the current warfare guidance. This research will evaluate the effectiveness of the current guidance as well as other documents that are currently available in order to determine if the nuances that cyber operations bring to the battlespace are accurately covered. The primary documents examined in this research are the Geneva Convention and all of its additional protocols, the Tallinn Manual published by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Center of Excellence, and the United Nations publication on acceptable behaviors in cyberspace. Case studies on the Russian attacks on Georgia and Estonia, the STUXNET attacks on Iran and the recent OPM hacks by Chinese actors will examined to prove the need for documentation that can direct apply international law to the cyber domain. After analysis of the effectiveness of the guidance documents when applied to the situations when cyber operations were carried out, the recommended course of action was to lobby for the adoption of the Tallinn Manual as the comprehensive guidance for wartime using current technologies. The Tallinn Manual provides the same guidance as the Geneva Convention but includes expanded definitions to include cyber related scenarios, making it great candidate for the first international agreement to apply the tenets of Jus in Bello and Jus as Bellum to cyberspace.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2015
- Accession Number
- AD1040719
Entities
People
- Nicholas Lewis
Organizations
- Air Command and Staff College