The Ethical and Policy Challenges of State-Sponsored Hacking

ABSTRACT
State sponsored hacking is one of the most destabilizing forces in today's international relations. As governments globally increasingly use cyber means for espionage, sabotage and coercion, the international legal order is lagging behind and can't keep up. The paper examines the ethical and policy challenges that attend state sponsored hacking, particularly the complex and ambiguous relationship between the requirements of national security and the more traditional concepts of sovereignty, human rights and international humanitarian law. It provides an overview of current legal regimes, such as the Tallinn Manual, the UN Charter, and a range of bilateral cybersecurity agreements, and identifies salient current norms gaps through doctrinal and comparative analysis. In reality, these holes appear to enable states to engage in cyber operations in a "grey zone" that is more ambiguous than traditional warfare. The point here is that it is not possible to create binding international norms, the definition of cyber warfare is ambiguous and the attribution mechanism, when it exists at all, is either weak or ambiguous. It concludes with recommendations such as the need for a framework of multilateral treaties and enhancing domestic accountability measures so that states are not able simply to act elsewhere without repercussions.