Dr. Conca opines that that cyberspace is the new global battlefield and its soldiers sit in front of computer screens. What happens when the escalating cyberattacks by Russia on our most critical industries - energy, finance, healthcare, manufacturing and transportation – succeed too well? Our regulations are not current, our defenses are not adequate and our people’s understanding is not sufficient. We are wide open to attack. It is no wonder that Russia has developed a suite of more and more effective cyber weapons that are being used against the United States and several other nations around the world. With impunity. But what happens if those attacks succeed too well? What if a cyberattack causes a blackout for 100 million people in the United States and a thousand people die as a result of no electricity for life-support systems, critical care or just panic? Do we go to actual war? Do we just respond in cyber-kind? Are there guidelines for this kind of thing?
The Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare is an attempt to come up with some. Written between 2009 and 2012 by the International Group of Experts at the invitation of NATO, the Tallinn Manual is an academic, non-binding study on how international law applies to cyber conflicts and cyber warfare. The manual was revised in 2017 and published by Cambridge University Press as a book titled Tallinn Manual 2.0.
Most people have heard of the Geneva Conventions for traditional, or kinetic, warfare, which are a legally binding set of international treaties. They resulted from a movement in the 1860s for an international laws governing the treatment and care for the wounded and prisoners of war, and has been revised several times, most recently in 1949. The Tallinn analysis states that ‘pre-cyber era international law applies to cyber operations, both conducted by, and directed against, states. This means that cyber events do not occur in a legal vacuum and thus states have both rights and bear obligations under international law.’
Original URL: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2018/08/09/when-would-russias-cyber-warfare-morph-into-real-warfare-refer-to-the-tallinn-manual/#5e403bcf6b27
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