This website is a blog. This means all members can post pages and can upload their own content. To do so: log in and click on the plus that appears in the top of the page after providing your username and password. There press the “Post” option. In order to make the website more attractive to members we will occasionally post interesting content for eLaw alumni here. And the first to do so is me. Your elusive webmaster.
My interest, recently, was sparked by the hacking state. More often than not states do not just passively collect intelligence, they seem, increasingly, to be employing network based attack strategies to break in and retrieve information. Other sates – it is suspected, to say the least – readily resort to the use of hacking as a means to distort infrastructure in another state.
The questions this raises for international law are numerous, but it all begins with a base line. That is: if a state actor uses relatively anonymous means to distort or access information in an other state: which responsibility does the state where the attack originates have? And in practical terms: how can this even be determined?
The major question is twofold: what are the due dilligence requirements of states in international law (also in relation to evidence gathering). And what could be the norms for states in such conflicts? Could this start a war? I hope not (and so do others)!
In light of this ongoing debate, I thought it was useful to post a link to a number of articles I was reading on this – for your elaw enjoyment. They are linked in the text above. Perhaps a next step would be to open a forum discussion on this topic: the more elaw enjoyment, the better, don’t you agree?
