The document discusses the threat of cyberwar and the lack of established definitions and international agreements regarding cyber conflict. There are differing definitions of cyberwar between countries like China/Russia and the US. The document also notes the difficulty of attribution in cyber attacks and challenges in applying existing laws of war to the digital domain. Overall, the document argues that internationally agreed rules and standards are needed to address the growing threats in cyberspace and avoid escalating conflicts between nations.

1. BY
TALWANT SINGH
SPECIAL JUDGE-CBI
NEW DELHI (INDIA)

2. CYBERWAR: THE NEXT THREAT TO NATIONAL
SECURITY
 There is no precise definition of „Cyberwar‟.
 The Shanghai Co-operation 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.

3. CYBERWAR: THE NEXT THREAT TO NATIONAL
SECURITY
 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.

4. CYBERWAR: THE NEXT THREAT TO NATIONAL
SECURITY
 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.

5. CYBERWAR: THE NEXT THREAT TO NATIONAL
SECURITY
 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.

6. CYBERWAR: THE NEXT THREAT TO NATIONAL
SECURITY
 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.

7. CYBERWAR: THE NEXT THREAT TO NATIONAL
SECURITY
 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.

8. CYBERWAR: THE NEXT THREAT TO NATIONAL
SECURITY
 Capabilities which currently exist include turning
off power grids, disrupting water supplies, financial
systems and manufacturing facilities.
 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.

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SECURITY
 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.

10. CYBERWAR: THE NEXT THREAT TO NATIONAL
SECURITY
 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.

11. CYBERWAR: THE NEXT THREAT TO NATIONAL
SECURITY
 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.

12. CYBERWAR: THE NEXT THREAT TO NATIONAL
SECURITY
 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.

13. CYBERWAR: THE NEXT THREAT TO NATIONAL
SECURITY
 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.

14. CYBERWAR: THE NEXT THREAT TO NATIONAL
SECURITY
 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.

15. CYBERWAR: THE NEXT THREAT TO NATIONAL
SECURITY
 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.

16. CYBERWAR: THE NEXT THREAT
TO NATIONAL SECURITY
THANKS
TALWANT SINGH
SPECIAL JUDGE CBI
NEW DELHI
talwant@yahoo.com