Cyberwar Risk Poses Specter Of Cyberwar Crimes

Tom Gjelten writes on NPR.org:

It may come as a surprise to some war victims, but there actually is a body of international law that establishes when and how nations can legally engage in armed conflict.

Various treaties — the United Nations Charter, and the Hague and Geneva conventions — distinguish between victims and aggressors, and put forward combat guidelines that, when honored, provide some protection to civilians. Professional militaries train with the rules of war in mind, recognizing that abiding by them works to their benefit as much as to the enemy's.

It is no surprise, then, that many legal experts, diplomats and military commanders around the world are now debating how to extend the law of war to cyberspace. The emergence of electronic and cyberwar-fighting capabilities is the most important military development in decades, but it is not yet clear how existing treaties and conventions might apply in this new domain of conflict.

We don't know when or if a cyberattack rises to the level of an 'armed attack.'

Uncertainty about the legal and ethical limits of state behavior in cyberspace could have disastrous consequences.

More here.