[ISN] Cyber Warfare Still Poses Legal Questions

From: InfoSec News <alerts_at_private>
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2012 01:09:37 -0500 (CDT)
http://www.informationweek.com/government/security/cyber-warfares-legal-questions/240007560

By J. Nicholas Hoover
InformationWeek
September 19, 2012

Legal norms are emerging in cybersecurity, but many questions about what 
is legal and what is not in cyber warfare remain unanswered, both in the 
U.S. and on the international stage, diplomatic and national security 
officials said Tuesday at an event hosted by U.S. Cyber Command at Fort 
Meade, Md.

"Attorneys and scholars face a variety of complex legal issues arising 
around the use of this new technology," Cyber Command chief of staff 
Rear Adm. Margaret Klein said at the conference. However, she was quick 
to add, as other speakers also added, that basic agreed-upon legal 
principles exist. For example: the United States government believes 
that operations in cyberspace should follow parallel rules for military 
operations in the real or "kinetic" world.

Klein said that although the leap to cyber warfare represents a shift in 
the way that the military carries out its operations, it is not 
dissimilar to other technological leaps that were also accompanied by a 
lag in the development of related legal norms. Unfortunately, the world 
is now moving at a much faster pace, and glacial development of the laws 
of cyber war is not something Klein wants to see. "We don't have that 
much time," she said.

Col. Gary Brown, Cyber Command's outgoing staff judge advocate, said the 
laws of cyber espionage are underdeveloped. Typically, he said, 
international law is silent on espionage, but different norms might 
emerge in the cyber arena. "We're starting to see public condemnation of 
espionage and starting to see attribution to foreign nations," he said. 
"That's an indication that there might be something different about 
cyber espionage than regular espionage."

[...]


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Received on Wed Sep 19 2012 - 23:09:37 PDT

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