James,
You did an excellent job answering this week’s discussion board question. I agree with you conclusion that cyber-attacks which are performed by nation states can be considered armed attack; however, I believe this for a different reason. When answering this question we must understand when an attack can be categorized as an armed attack. This leads to the United Nation charters which dictate when nations are allowed to go to war and retaliate in response to armed attacks. According to the United Nations Charter 51, 39, and article 2(4) it appears that any attack can be defined as an armed attack if the attack can result in or is capable of resulting in the destruction of property or loss of life. It is also stated in the aforementioned United Nations documents that if an attack which meets this definition threshold does occur, nothing restricts the right of the nation being attacked from resorting to self-defense measures including launching a similar attack against the offending nation. Using the definition of an armed attack as defined by the United Nations it is easy to see how cyber-attacks performed by nation states can be considered to be an armed attack. However, it is important to note that not all cyber-attacks by nation states can be considered an armed
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For a nation state cyber-attack to be considered an armed attack it must meet the level of force in the most severe measure and must result in or be capable of resulting in the destruction of property or loss of life and in meeting this the nation on the receiving end of this armed attack has the right to self-defense
The most recents detections of how cyber warfare is inevitably coming was the accusations of Russia hacking the the Democratic National Committee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email’s releasing damaging evidence against them which ultimately lead to Donald Trump being named the President of The United States (Diamond, 2016). The effects of cyber warfare have leaked over in to televise series, forming shows such as CSI cyber, and the gaming world, Call Of Duty Infinite Warfare. Neglect regarding cyber security can: undermine the reputation of both the government and elected officials; force unacceptable expenditures associated with the cost of cleaning up after security breaches; cripple governments' abilities to respond to a wide variety of homeland security emergency situations or recover from natural or man-made threats; and disable elected officials' ability to govern (Lohrmann, 2010). Classified information such as overseas operators and attacks, missile locations, response plans and weaknesses, and much more cripples America’s ability to defend itself from enemies both foreign and domestic. To combat cyber terrorism is the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, or CISA. In an article titled “Why Cybersecurity Information Sharing Is A Positive Step for Online Security” it is discussed that under CISA, the Department of Homeland security will have more responsibility for domestic cybersecurity. CISA’s fundamental purpose is to better enable cybersecurity information to be shared between the private and public sectors (2016). The sharing of threat information between public and private sectors can give the the United States a head start by allowing them to share information rapidly and more often to combat enemy threats while still providing safety for privacy and civil
The US should not retaliate in a cyber-war because it can cause lots of damage to our water supply, cellphone towers, trains, airport landing lights, and even our daily lives. If we were to go to war with Russia or another country that is more experienced in hacking, the results would be terrible. The other country would be able to malfunction our airplane equipment. They could make the plane go out of control, malfunction the landing gear, or take complete control over the plane. They could hack into our banks and take our money which would leave the country in debt. They could damage the stock markets and make any company go down dramatically in business.
There is debate whether larger countries like the United States should go to war with smaller countries. Larger countries should not go to war with smaller countries because wars don’t solve or conclude anything, having a war with a small country is a waste of time and money, and all the violence and conflict in the war shouldn’t be the answer in a dispute.
Every day across the United States, law enforcement officers are found within situation where they must take immediate actions to calm on-going conflicts. With targets. As to everything we do, there must be a particular action we need to do prior. A guitarist first tunes his guitar before playing; an athlete first warms up before playing sports; as well to a police whom needs to be prepared before beginning shift, knowing there is a possible risked that could go drastic within a few seconds. If a suspect were to murder someone right in front of them, what would an officer do? What force would Law enforcement proceed with? Or perhaps it would all come to a shock and a total surprise as in the case of Tracey Thurman in
“With such advanced communication technology, how did the United States not get information about the attack?”
Cyberspace is both a military domain and a part of the global commons, that is uncontrolled by any state or entity. (Carrington post, citing Denmark, 11). As technology increases, the world shifts from an industrial society to an information economy. (Whitescarver July 28, 2016 post, citing Allen and Pollack, video). Cyber threats impede the Joint Force’s capabilities to defend the United States with technology and with systems that utilize, transmit and store
Almost all military personnel had been recalled from bases around the world to assist in domestic relief efforts. Entire cities up and down both coasts had been wiped off the map. I was stationed at a refugee center near Dallas when Black announced his candidacy for President.
The United States is under attack. To be exact, the nation’s power grid is under attack in the form of cyber warfare. On May 21st, 2013 Congressmen Edward J. Markey and Henry A Waxman published a report that provided the findings from information that they had requested from over 150 utility companies (of which 60% responded). More than a dozen utilities reported “daily, constant, or frequent attempted cyber-attacks” (Markey & Waxman) with one utility reporting that they have about 10,000 attempted attacks per month!
Yes, I think the US has a duty to help out neighboring countries in times of needs. The US needs as many allies it could get, so doing favors in return will help gain support. It's not necessary for the US to intervene every time, but in times of serious situations where countries need support is appropriate for the US to step in. Threats of war is an example of when the US should step
In order to properly answer the question posed we must first define what cyber-war and cyber-terrorism are. The Oxford Dictionaries defines cyber-war as “The use of computer technology to disrupt the activities of a state or organization, especially the deliberate attacking of communication systems by another state or organization:” Although there is no dictionary definition of cyber-terrorism, The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has defined it as “the use of computer network tools to shut down critical national infrastructures (e.g., energy, transportation, government operations) or to coerce or intimidate a government or civilian population.” The author defines cyber terror as “the intimidation of civilian enterprise through the use of high technology to bring about political, religious, or ideological aims, actions that result in disabling or deleting critical infrastructure data or information.”
Defining cyber-warfare is also important but suffers from the same lack of continuity between United States military branches and government agencies. Schaap lists varying terminology used ranging from the Department of Defense’s definition which states, “the employment of cyber capabilities where the primary purpose is to achieve military objectives or effects through cyber-space” to the Air Force’s definition, “the integrated planning and employment
Most nations today fear terror attacks that include bombing use of reinforcements like machines guns and other firearms. This is because terror attacks most of the times leave many people dead and others disabled while others are left without families. However, there is another attack today in many nations that can be destructive like a terror attack and this is the cyber-attack and threats. Cyber-attacks can be responsible for large mass destructions by making all systems connected to cyber networks fail to work (Rhodes 20). An example is the Morris worm that affected the world cyber infrastructures and caused them to slow down to a position of being impractical. Therefore, as a result of these cyber-attacks resources are being established and designed to help counter the attacks.
Cyber warfare requires intellect not military might and a country does not have to be a military superpower to wage a cyber attack. Cyber attack tracks are much easier to cover and are easily attributable to another entity. While cyber attacks are only recently been declared by our military and political leadership as acts of war, compared to an actual physical military attack on another country life can go on as usual for most of the citizens on both sides of the conflict without the slightest idea that their country is at war. It does not cost billions of dollars to run or manage and is hardly a long-term commitment of hundreds of thousands of troops and the logistics to support them and their equipment at the front lines. In case of Iran, a cyber attack was the most viable option available to global powers because the Iranian regime did not hesitate to make threats against the United States and Israel should it have been attacked militarily to make it stop trying to produce nuclear
Cyberterrorism is generally understood to refer to highly damaging computer-based attacks or threats of attack by non-state actors against
Cyber warfare attacks can disable official websites and networks, disrupt or disable essential services, steal or alter classified data, and cripple financial systems -- among many other possibilities (definition of cyberwarfare) “.The Tech Target definition includes no reference of nation states. That is because cyber warfare has such a low barrier to entry, a teenager can effectively shut down or damage thousands or millions of dollars of digital infrastructure, something that a real world counterpart would take years to plan, would take weeks, and the only tools needed are a mouse, keyboard, and some type of motivation. Cyber warfare is constantly evolving, constantly becoming more of a threat and is, in fact, being employed right now as this sentence is being read.