Law of Armed Conflict To Apply To Cyberwar

charter6 writes "Gen. Kevin Chilton, the head of STRATCOM, just declared that the Law of Armed Conflict will apply to cyberwar, and that the US won't rule out conventional (read: kinetic) responses to cyber-attacks. This means that we consider state-supported 'hackers' to be subject to the Geneva Conventions and Customary International Law, including the rules of proportionality and distinction (i.e. if we catch them, we can try them for war crimes). Incidentally, it also means we consider non-state cyber-attackers to be illegal enemy combatants, which means we can do all kinds of nasty stuff to them."

Comments

Awesome

[Anonymous Coward]

This seems like a great idea, until you realize that any american geek who prods too deeply will be branded an enemy combatant.

Who knows what happens to enemy combatants.

Re:Awesome

[servognome]

I thought the whole point of having separate legal rules for war situations was that it was a battlefield with thousands of guys running around shooting people. You can't really apply the normal American legal process on that scale. There aren't enough judges, prosecutors, jurors, and, thankfully, lawyers in the world to do it. It just doesn't seem like this rationale applies to hacking. Still, play it safe, guys. If you must hack military sites, for God's sake, wear a uniform!

The Pentagon does in fact have lawyers in the field and planning rooms to review the legality of missions before they are performed.
I always thought that the reason for having rules for war was mutually assured security. There are some horrible prospects in war that countries don't want to face, so they agree to rules which prohibits such activities. Don't torture our soldiers and target our civilians and we respond in kind.
Since they come from agreement and not unilateral moral declarations, participants can ignore the rules when dealing with parties not adhering to the accords.

Re:Awesome

[Paua Fritter]

Very true. But you, when all you have is a hammer, everyone else looks like a nail.

The US is so hypermilitarised that militarism is a natural first response to anything. This is how we get such absurdities as "humanitarian bombing campaigns" and "destroying the village in order to save it".

I'd be okay it with if only...

[erroneus]

...if only I get to personally witness the death by execution of the people who write malware, run botnets and spam the hell out of the planet.

Those those trade freedom for security deserve neither. But I would gladly trade some freedom for some revenge against the bastards that really bring hell to the masses.

Re:Copyright army

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone else notice slashdot isn't showing comment info on the front page anymore?

Re:Hey!

[Alex Belits]

1. They are definitely members of "organized resistance movement" -- otherwise how can they be declared to be "combatants" in the first place?

2. When the war is claimed to be waged against "terrorists", it would require some very special kind of logic to claim that "terrorists" (again, by attackers' own definition) fighting it are not a party to the conflict.

3. The intent of Geneva Convention is not to exclude any category if people that may be captured during a war that is not already protected by other laws. It is assumed that whoever is not protected by Convention, would be protected under local laws related to civilian population. Treating Geneva Convention as an invitation for loophole hunt is nothing but word games on part of Bush administration.

Don't think this was crafted for Blackhats....

[TiggertheMad]

It sounds good in theory, but like the parent, I also look at our country's history of using good judgment in situations like this, and worry.

I suspect that this law is mostly a diplomatic message being sent to China, to let them know we mean business if they use extra-military actors to engage in cyberwarfare. There have been a number of announcements from the pentagon that Chinese hackers have been actively poking at the military systems.

This is the polite heads up to their intelligence service to let them know that we are going to hold their China responsible for the activities of their nationalistic and zealous hackers and if they don't ease up, the counter stroke will be to park a cruse missile in the block of apartments that they are operating out of.

It sounds heavy handed, but States don't fuck around with playing games in courts when they view other states as being hostile. So if it seems like a pretty drastic measure, it is because it was likely a response crafted to deal with another state on the levels that states operate. It's possible that another Kevin Mitnik type could get dragged off to federal prison using this, but that would probably be some local prosecutor trying to show how 'tough' they were on cybercrime.