Title: Organizing for Cyberspace Operations: Selected Issues
Abstract: With the establishment of United States Cyber Command, the United States dramatically raised the profile of cyberspace operations as a method of warfare, prompting other nations to follow suit and establish their own cyber operations units. As more and more states create such units, it is appropriate to examine the international law implications for how cyber operations units should be organized to conduct operations, given the unique nature of cyberspace as an operating domain. This article examines, through the prism of U.S. Department of Defense practices, three areas of the law of armed conflict with implications for the organization and execution of cyberspace operations. First, the issue of reviewing cyberspace weapons for compliance with the laws of armed conflict is examined by comparing and contrasting the practices of the services that comprise the United States armed forces. Second, the article addresses issues raised by the requirement to take precautions against the effects of attacks, specifically, the feasibility of clearly separating military objects and objectives from civilian objects in cyberspace. Finally, the article extends the discussion of precautions against the effect of cyber attacks to a State's conduct of its own cyber attacks, examining principles implicit in the interaction between a number of customary rules within the laws of armed conflict to arrive at conclusions as to how States should organize and prepare for conducting cyber attacks.
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-04-03
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 1
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