Cyber-attacks – an unlawful use of digital technologies

Abstract

This article notes that cyber-attacks, i.e. disruption of the information systems of persons, companies or countries, are a new type of criminal activity. International law does not yet have does not have normative documents that regulate the procedure of countering cyber-attacks. It is complicated by the fact that in the international law the grounds for taking coercive measures against other country is aggression (armed attack), which confers the right to individual or collective self-defense of the country. It is indicated that the doctrine legitimizes drawing parallels between common operation that are classified as the resorting to force, and the corresponding cyber operations. As the criterion of aggression, it is offered to use the assessment of the scale of attack and severity of consequences. The difficulty in qualifying the cyber-attack also lies in open architecture of the Internet, which allows billions of users worldwide to interact with each other. The aforementioned aspect also allows the hackers to hide their identity or even use someone else's device without their knowledge. All these difficulties aggravate if cyber operations are conducted by or on behalf of the countries. In fact, the cyber-attack participants do not bear any consequences for their actions. It is claimed that modern international law suggests both, intraterritorial or extraterritorial jurisdiction.