Rules for Cyber War Set

By: Zain Nabi  |   March 20th, 2013   |   News

An advisory manual has attempted to set the rules for cyber wars and the ways to respond in case a state faces a cyber attack from another state. The manual, which has been written for Nato, predicts that online attacks can lead to full-scale military warfare in future, and tries to bar states from attacking every sector while it attempts a cyber invasion.

 

The manual is prepared by 20 legal experts working in conjunction with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the U.S. Cyber Command. Nato had asked these experts to prepare a manual about three years ago. The manual has attempted to prevent hackers from targeting hospitals, nuclear installations and other sensitive areas. It states, via Guardian:

 

“In order to avoid the release of dangerous forces and consequent severe losses among the civilian population, particular care must be taken during cyber-attacks against works an installations containing dangerous forces, namely dams, dykes and nuclear electrical generating stations, as well as installations located in their vicinity.”

 

During the last few years, there have been a number of reports with respect to hacking activities, both independent and state-sponsored. Although any international conflict has not reportedly participated solely in cyberspace, the threat of conflicts is always there. According to the manual:

 

“An international armed conflict exists whenever there are hostilities, which may include or be limited to cyber operations occurring between two states or more.” It adds: “To date, no international armed conflict has been publicly characterised as having been solely precipitated in cyberspace. Nevertheless, the international group of experts unanimously concluded that cyber operations alone might have the potential to cross the threshold of international armed conflict.”

 

Interestingly, it is not difficult to find the origin of any cyber attack. However, the important and daunting task is to identify if the state has been involved in the attack. Even if the attack is initiated from any particular state or a government network, one cannot assume that the state is behind it. Many independent hackers have also been reportedly violating the rules to enter networks and systems of other states. The manual clarifies that matter about the involvement of any state in a cyber attack that originates from a government network:

 

“It is not sufficient evidence for attributing the operation to that state but is an indication that the state in question is associated with the operation.”

 

Photo: V3