Category Archives: Geneva Convention

Ukraine conflict spurs questions of how to define cyberwar

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Legal scholars and cybersecurity experts are closely watching events in Ukraine with an eye on how the Russian invasion may redefine the laws of war for the cyber era. Many agree that Ukraine’s conflict with Russia — an established cyber superpower that isn’t hesitant about flexing its muscle aggressively — could test the rules of war in new and unexpected ways. Some say it already has. Exactly how these rules might be redefined is the subject of significant debate. In recent days, authorities as disparate as the president of Microsoft and the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee have weighed in on how NATO’s Article 5 provision for “collective defense,” the Geneva Convention’s protections for civilian targets and other legal frameworks for armed conflict may be challenged in the coming weeks. On Monday, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. and the chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, said at a Washington […]

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Microsoft-led industry group pledges to not assist government cyberattacks

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A cohort of major technology companies led by Microsoft committed Tuesday to a core set of principles for behavior in cyberspace, including not helping any government mount a cyberattack against “innocent civilians and enterprises.” For the last several weeks, Microsoft has been seeking support from companies in order to define a common standard of behavior, or norms, for the broader software making community. The announcement was spearheaded by Brad Smith, president and chief legal officer of Microsoft. Smith spoke Tuesday morning at the RSA cybersecurity conference in San Francisco to an audience mostly comprised of cybersecurity industry insiders and marketers. These norms spelled out in the agreement cover more than government relations. They contain the concept of “collective action” between technology companies to eliminate some of the more expansive cybersecurity threats facing the global economy. Dubbed the “Cybersecurity Tech Accord,” the agreement showcases the signatures of more than 30 chief executives from some of […]

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Microsoft’s Smith adds ‘IT Red Cross’ to his ‘digital Geneva Convention’ call

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Microsoft President Brad Smith this week renewed his call for a “digital Geneva Convention,” adding a new wrinkle: the suggestion that the world’s IT companies and their cyber first responders should be recognized as kind of “tech Red Cross” — neutral players who should remain unmolested by combatants on the cyber-battlefield. In a speech at the U.N. in Geneva, Smith recalled the origins of the International Committee of the Red Cross — the brainchild of Geneva businessman Henri Dunant, who witnessed the slaughter at the battle of Solferino, in Italy in 1859, the deadliest single day of battle in Europe since Waterloo nearly a half-century earlier.   “He recognized that humanity needed to catch up with [new weapons] technology … he advocated, he persuaded, he succeeded in convincing the leaders of governments in Europe that despite the fact that the medics were uniformed soldiers of a specific army, they should be treated as neutrals … protected so they could treat those […]

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Tallinn Manual author: Petya malware attack likely war crime

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If Russia was indeed behind the recent destructive malware attack known as Petya, then it should be considered a war crime, according to the lead author of the definitive guide to international law in cyber conflict. Even though no one was injured or killed, they very easily could have been; the attackers appear to have targeted civilian infrastructure including hospitals and power companies; and they did so with an indiscriminate weapon, argues Prof. Michael Schmitt of the U.S. Naval War College, and lead author of the Tallinn Manual, in an article posted on the European Journal of International Law. But the reasoning only holds if Moscow was behind the attack — because Russia is already engaged in an armed conflict, albeit undeclared, with Ukraine, the nation originally targeted by the malware. Petya on its own isn’t be a big enough attack to count as a “use of force” in international law. “A threshold question is, ‘Is the […]

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