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Legal Implications of the Privatization of Cyber Warfare
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1831-4066
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EUI AEL; 2010/02; PRIV-WAR project
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LIXINSKI, Lucas, Legal Implications of the Privatization of Cyber Warfare, EUI AEL, 2010/02, PRIV-WAR project - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/13577
Abstract
The paper deals with the combination of two emerging topics in militarization and the conduct of war:
cyber warfare and the use of private military and security companies and personnel. As technological
capacity grows, populations and governments alike become more and more dependent on reliable
internet connections and information placed only on the cyberspace. The fact that computers are so
depended upon makes these sectors of human activity particularly vulnerable if their computers or
networks were to be shut down. One equally important topic is that of the privatization of war. This is
an increasingly strong tendency among governments, who look at privatization as the answer to their
needs for not having to maintain a large permanent military and seek more efficiency in methods and
operation. But what happens when cyber warfare is privatized, when a contractor working
simultaneously for the U.S., French and Saudi Arabian governments can, from his office in a
commercial neighbourhood in London, set off an attack that disrupts the entire telecommunications
grid of say, China? The topic of the privatization of cyber warfare seems to float in a “double legal
vacuum”, as there are no clear rules for either cyber warfare in general or for the privatization of
military services. However, I suggest that rules can be drawn analogically from established rules and
principles of international humanitarian law and human rights to fill both of these vacuums.