Deontology: Ethical Dilemmas of Weaponizing Commercial Cyber Technologies

Abstract

Cyber commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies are affordable and have the potential to be used as an offensive weapon. It is only a matter of time before belligerent governments begin to weaponize these COTS technologies to meet political objectives. When a cyber-attack using COTS happens and there are collateral damages that negatively impact the innocent cyber technology company, who should be held accountable? There are laws, social norms, ethics, and expert recommendations that help guide a governments responsibility should there be collateral damage. While many ethical foundations should drive the governments response to collateral damage, deontology, or ethics of duty, should play the strongest role within western democratic nations in establishing the belligerents responsibility to pay reparations for any collateral damages to the cyber company.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 08, 2018
Accession Number
AD1079767

Entities

People

  • Stephen Fulkerson

Organizations

  • Naval War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Cyber

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Afghanistan Conflict
  • Aircrafts
  • Collateral Damage
  • Commerce
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Cyber Warfare
  • Cyberattacks
  • Cyberspace
  • Cyberspace Operations
  • Governments
  • International Law
  • International Relations
  • National Security
  • Social Norms
  • United States Government
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Military Leadership and Professional Education.
  • Military Science and Technology Research and Modernization.
  • Strategic Security Studies

Technology Areas

  • Cyber
  • Cyber - Legality in Cyberspace
  • Cyber - Quantum