RULES OF THE GAME

IN CYBERWAR
BY
TALWANT SINGH
ADDL. DISTT. & SESSIONS JUDGE: DELHI
 RULES OF THE GAME IN CYBERWAR

• There is no precise definition of ‘Cyberwar’.

• The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (members
include China and Russia) defines cyberwar to include
dissemination of information harmful to the spiritual,
moral and cultural spheres of other states.
• In contrast, the United States’ approach focuses on
physical and economic damage and injury, putting
political concerns under freedom of speech.
• This difference of opinion has led to reluctance among
Nations to pursue global cyber arms control
agreements.
 RULES OF THE GAME IN CYBERWAR

• A Ukrainian Professor of International Law,

Alexander Merezhko, has developed a project
called the International Convention on
Prohibition of Cyberwar in Internet.
• According to this project, cyberwar is defined as
the use of internet and related technological
means by one state against political, economic,
technological and information sovereignty and
independence of any other state.
 RULES OF THE GAME IN CYBERWAR

• The world needs cyber war "Rules of

Engagement" to cope with potentially
devastating cyber weapons.
• In the intermingled world of cyberspace, we
may need to protect zones that run facilities
such as hospitals or schools.
• Discriminating between military and civilian
targets is more difficult in cyberspace, and may
require protected, marked, domain names.
 RULES OF THE GAME IN CYBERWAR

• Ambiguity about what constitutes cyber conflict

is delaying international policy to deal with it,
and that perhaps the idea of "peace" or "war" is
too simple in the internet age when the world
could find itself in a third, "other than war",
mode.
• Ensuring security in cyberspace is vital to our
national security, our well being and our
prosperity.
• Without it we can't have the economy we aspire
to have.
 RULES OF THE GAME IN CYBERWAR

• Cyber weapons have attributes not previously

seen with traditional weapons, nor considered
during the development of the current Laws of
War.
• Cyber weapons can deliver, in the blink of an
eye, wild viral behaviors that are easily
reproduced and transferred, while lacking target
discrimination.
 RULES OF THE GAME IN CYBERWAR

• The nature of cyber space, with its ease of

anonymity and use of proxies, makes the
attribution of any attack very difficult. This
raises the question of proportionality.
• How strongly should a state respond to an
attack when you do not know who did it, where
they did it from or what the intention was? In
conventional military terms these questions are
easier to answer - not so in the cyber world.
 RULES OF THE GAME IN CYBERWAR

• Capabilities which currently exist include turning

off power grids, disrupting water supplies and
manufacturing systems.
• Countries should exchange strategies and
information to build confidence over the long
term, so one never gets to the point of a cyber
conflict or even a larger conflict.
• Any such agreement remains a distant prospect
because nations lack common legal standards
in cyberspace and information security is
closely connected with national interests.
 RULES OF THE GAME IN CYBERWAR

• The infamous Stuxnet worm was blamed for

infecting industrial control systems and
sabotaging centrifuges at controversial Iranian
nuclear facilities.
• Some have described this malware as the
world's first cyber-weapon though cyber-
espionage in many guises has undoubtedly
been practiced by intelligence agencies across
the world for many years.
 RULES OF THE GAME IN CYBERWAR

• Computer systems underpin the delivery of essential

services, including utilities and telecoms and well as
banking and government services.
• Although attacks against various critical systems are
commonplace they tend to be low level information-
stealing or denial of service exploits.
• Cyberwar risks are all too real and illustrated by the
denial of services attacks that blitzed Estonia off the
web and the Operation Aurora assaults against
Google and other high-tech firms.
 RULES OF THE GAME IN CYBERWAR

• The cyberwar lexicon is especially confusing

because it remains immature.
• For example, there is no agreed definition of
what constitutes a cyber attack on a nation or a
breach of sovereignty.
• Often theft, espionage, reconnaissance or even
simple hacking is described as a cyber attack.
 RULES OF THE GAME IN CYBERWAR

• National and international laws, regulations,

and enforcement are still struggling to catch up
to cyber activities worldwide.
• Rules, protocols, and standards are few and
disconnected, often conflicting with each other.
• In most cases, laws have not kept pace with the
technical ability of an adversary to move rapidly
through national, academic, commercial, and
private internet service providers.
 RULES OF THE GAME IN CYBERWAR

• Protection of strategic-crucial infrastructure and

vital information for national security is of
utmost importance.
• The rules of cyberwar, once adopted, will help
to define conditions in which the armed forces
can go on the offensive against cyber threats
and decide what specific actions it can take.
• The laws of land warfare and law of armed
conflict apply to cyberspace.
 RULES OF THE GAME IN CYBERWAR

• Nation states, non-nation state actors and

hacker groups are creating tools that are
increasingly more persistent & threatening, and
armed forces have to be ready for that.
• Rules of Cyberwar must determine what
represents a reasonable & proportional
response to a cyber attack as the law of armed
conflict authorizes a reasonable, proportional
defense against a physical attack from another
country.
 RULES OF THE GAME IN CYBERWAR

• It remains unclear if the response to cyber

attack includes authority to shut down a
computer network, even if it’s been taken over
by a malicious cyber attacker with intention to
destroy it.
• If it does, also left unanswered so far is who
would have that authority: the Ministry of IT, the
CBI, the military, the Cert-In, the internet
service provider or any other entity.
 RULES OF THE GAME IN CYBERWAR

• American “kill switch bill": on June 19, 2010, US

Senator Joe Lieberman introduced a bill called
“Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act
of 2010“, which he co-wrote with senator Susan
Collins and senator Thomas Carper.
• If signed into law, this controversial bill, which
the American media dubbed the “kill switch bill”,
would grant the President emergency powers
over parts of the internet.
RULES OF THE GAME IN CYBERWAR

THANKS

TALWANT SINGH
ADDL. DISTT. & SESSIONS JUDGE
NEW DELHI (INDIA)
talwant@yahoo.com