The Need For RoE In Cyberwarfare

In simpler times long ago, an act of war was easily defined as an incident of purposeful, and harmful, violence directed against one country from another. This made it rather easy to figure out if war was being made on you, or if you were making war on someone else. For example, the War of Jenkin's Ear. A Spanish boarding party cut off the ear of a British captain, and a 10 year war ensued in which 20,000 men were lost, and 407 ships destroyed.

Times have obviously changed a bit since then. Notably, computers and cyberspace have dramatically changed our lives. With the advent of cloud-computing, the internet has become an essential tool. Ever increasing in ubiquity, the internet now controls massive amounts of infrastructure, news outlets, and financial institutions. A feature of this new system is that most of the previously mentioned edifices are accessible to anyone with an internet connection.

The problem with this is that those who would do us harm are not barred from this access. Several times in all-too-recent history, governmental and commercial websites have been maliciously attacked by self-proclaimed "hacktivists", such as Anonymous, with the general agenda of bringing about an anarchistic landscape on the net. In addition to these groups, entire governments have become involved. Therein lie several big questions: What exactly constitutes an act of war in cyberspace? Is it the same as in the "real world"? What sort of retaliation, if any, is required or justifiable? To what extent should cyber-attacks influence international relations?

Consider this: Chinese commandos land in Seattle and burn down Amazon.com's headquarters. Obviously this is an act of aggression, and would be treated as a declaration of war. However, if Chinese hackers bring down Amazon.com's website, little is said about the matter. If American fighter jets and bombers destroyed an Iranian nuclear facility, it would obviously be an act of war. But if American and Israeli computer scientists devise the nastiest computer worm invented and launch it on an Iranian nuclear facility, no accusations are made.

Ourselves and our enemies have done more than cut off each other's ears, yet war has not broken out, and the perpetrators have gone unpunished. Thoughts, anyone?