Defining on line attacks and cyberwar
The growing number of cyberattacks — for political reasons (Estonia, Georgia) and for profit — prompts calls to define the threat more clearly
We have reported on the cyber attacks on Estonia and Georgia - and about the rising wave of cybercrime. A cyber security expert now says that the international community urgently needs to establish legal norms when it comes to computer and on line crimes to help define and deter a problem that is escalating in severity. U.S. News’s Alex Kingsbury writes that a bipartisan commission examining the U.S. cybersecurity infrastructure concluded last week that the next president needs clearly to articulate the value of the U.S. cyber domain. Many groups are already looking at the issue, from NATO, which is focused on military applications, and DHS, to the European Union.
The commission, the creation of which was one of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, urged action from the White House directly. “The president should state as a fundamental principle that cyberspace is a vital asset for the nation and that the United States will protect it using all instruments of national power, in order to ensure national security, public safety, economic prosperity, and the delivery of critical services to the American public,” the panel’s report said.
The mere act of codifying cyberattacks, cybercrimes, or cyberwar would do little physically to prevent them from happening, says Jonathan Zittrain, a law professor at Harvard University and author of The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It. It could, however, have a deterrent effect, establishing a legal basis for punishing states that sponsor such incidents.
