While much attention has been paid to jus ad bellum issues – examining when and under what circumstances a cyber attack constitutes an armed attack for the purposes of self defense – relatively little discussion has focused on how cyber warfare might require new rules, or new interpretations of rules, regarding the conduct of hostilities, or the jus in bello, once armed conflict has begun.
On the other hand, the Active System Identification attack constitutes an alternative to the Passive System Identification attack, in situations where the attacker cannot wait so long for the occurrence of such meaningful signals.
If the regime did in fact perpetrate the attack – an allegation strongly supported by evidence but disputed by Assad and Putin – then the attack constitutes a war crime.
As shown in Fig. 2 (draw based on the taxonomy proposed in [12]), the Passive System Identification attack constitutes a path to build sophisticated model-dependent attacks, once they are capable to provide the attacker with the required system knowledge.
This attack constitutes a grave violation of International Humanitarian Law.
At what point, he asked, did a cyber attack constitute an act of war under international law?" When the defense secretary finally received a response — vague and evasive, in his estimation — almost two full years had passed.
When does a cyber attack constitute an actual act of war?
Anne McLellan, Canada's justice minister, declined to say whether the attack constituted a hate crime, saying such a decision was up to the provincial prosecutor.
U.S. Constitution, Article III, Section 3: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort". Trump's own national security adviser said the Russian election attack constituted an "act of war". So what does that make his boss?
Harvey Kurzweil, a lawyer for Travelers, said, "This vindicates Travelers' position that a jury should be permitted to decide whether this was a single coordinated terrorist attack constituting one occurrence under the Travelers policy".
