The social revolution brought about by information technologies has changed the ways many of us live. Not so long ago we’d be reading this article in a magazine, but now you could also be reading this on a laptop, tablet or smartphone.
These changes reach far deeper than the ways we consume entertainment: relationships, healthcare and even governments are rapidly evolving. As we become increasingly dependent on information technologies, the threat of cyberwar has the potential to make us targets of cyber-attack even though we’re thousands of kilometres from any war zone.
In an effort to better understand the social implications of cyberwar, we can ask a series of questions to get a better idea of just what “cyberwar” means. What is new and what is just a continuation of things we’ve faced in the past? Would a cyber-attack count as a reason to use military force, or are cyber-attacks different to the conventional use of force? And should a country reduce the prospect of civilian harms by making its own cyber-infrastructure a target for attack?
A first and vitally important question is whether a cyber-attack counts as an armed attack. In discussions about justified use of military force, there must a justifying cause. That is, you simply can’t use your military to attack another country or people without some cause. Article 51 of The United Nations...
