Russia vs Ukraine

The media has been abuzz with the conflict between Russia and Ukraine over the past month.  An article in the Washington Post on March 16 mentioned that Putin has 60,000 troops waiting just outside the border of Ukraine.  The physical war may not have begun, but the cyber war has...

The soldiers of cyber war can be anyone, anywhere.  These soldiers of war don't necessarily wear a uniform and may not have sworn allegiance to one country or another.  These soldiers don't carry traditional weapons, these soldiers have tools to inflict denial of service attacks or website defacement.  Their goal is to stop the operation of critical web servers and cause panic to the masses.  The internet sites of the Russian Kremlin, foreign ministry, central bank and Ria Novosti (the press agency) were targeted and attacked.


The real problem with cyberwarfare is that the attackers.   The soldiers can be anyone.  There are tools on the internet (such as TOR) that anonymizes the attacker.  When the attacker's identity and location are hidden the entity being attacked doesn't know who is responsible.  Furthermore, attackers can use bots to carry out denial of service attacks.

Cyberwarfare has great potential to impact innocent bystanders and those who should not be impacted.   The Geneva Convention and Hague Conventions provide for humanitarian law that is designed to limit armed conflict which is known as International Humanitarian Law.  Specific requirements:

 "Parties to a conflict and members of their armed forces do not have an unlimited choice of methods and means of warfare. It is prohibited to employ weapons or methods of warfare of a nature to cause unnecessary losses or excessive suffering."

 "Parties to a conflict and members of their armed forces do not have an unlimited choice of methods and means of warfare. It is prohibited to employ weapons or methods of warfare of a nature to cause unnecessary losses or excessive suffering."

Are civilians impacted by cyberwar?  Undeniably, yes. 


References:  http://www.icrc.org/eng/war-and-law/overview-war-and-law.htm