Title: Cyber War Inc.: The Law of War Implications of the Private Sector's Role in Cyber Conflict
Abstract: SUMMARY INTRODUCTION 618 I. MAPPING THE LAW OF WAR ONTO CYBER CONFLICT 622 A. Threshold Questions 622 1. What Is the Purpose of the Cyber Operation? 622 2. Who Is the Perpetrator? 624 3. What Are the Consequences or Intended Consequences of the Cyber Operation? 625 4. Is There an Ongoing Armed Conflict to Which the Cyber Operation Is Connected? 627 B. Applying the Law of War to Cyber Conflicts Generally 627 1. Jus ad Bellum 628 2. Jus in Bello 629 a. Distinction 630 b. Proportionality 631 II. THE LAW OF WAR IMPLICATIONS OF THE PRIVATE SECTOR'S ROLE IN CYBER CONFLICT 632 A. The Obama Administration 's Public-Private Partnership Plan 634 B. Scholarly Proposals to Protect the Private Sector 637 C. The Law of War and the Private Sector's Role in Cyber Conflict 637 1. Erosion of the State's Monopoly on the Use of Force 638 2. Erosion of the Standard of Imputation 639 CONCLUSION 640 Introduction On June 1, 2011, Google Inc., the world's leading search engine and major email services provider, announced on its blog that hackers in Jinan, China, had accessed the personal email accounts of hundreds of users including, among others, senior U.S. government officials, Chinese political activists, officials in several Asian countries (predominantly South Korea), military personnel and journalists.1 The hack was spear-phishing campaign, meaning it targeted specific individuals with carefully crafted emails deployed to trick users into disclosing personal information like email account passwords,2 and it had been noticed as early as February by an independent blogger who helped tip off Google/ The following day Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Google's allegation very serious and announced an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.4 Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei deemed Google's claim a complete fabrication out of ulterior motives.5 An editorial in the Global Times, Chinese nationalist newspaper, elaborated, calling Google snotty-nosed and disgruntled about its poor market position in China.6 The incident was the second major hack that Google had traced back to China. In January 2010, the company announced that cyber originating from China had tried to steal the company's intellectual property and had targeted the email accounts of Chinese human rights advocates.7 In response, Google reversed its controversial decision to permit China to censor its search results,8 thus dooming the company's market aspirations in the country. Google stressed that it was not the only company that had been targeted, but felt compelled to publicize the attack because of the security and human rights implications and the global debate about freedom of speech. …
Publication Year: 2012
Publication Date: 2012-07-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 5
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