Author: Prashant, Vivekananda College of Law Bengaluru

Evolution of a wheel from stone to modern wheels everyone is aware of. But evolution of technology from large devices to pocket friendly devices is a great beware. Yes, you read that correctly ‘Beware’. Advancement of technology has come up with a rider that, faster the way greater are the risks of it. This rapidity has transformed cyberspace into a battlefield of computers, showing who is the real giant in it.

Naturally, states sharing a boundary are in conflict for ages, but cyberspace is that cross or trans border activity which exists fictionally, but still impact is greater than real borders. State sponsored Cyber-warfare has emerged as a major security concern, affecting national infrastructure, economic stability and political independence. Due to the Big Daddy Syndrome, many developed nations like America, China are focusing on turning the world into two poles, their ego is affecting global peace. History repeats itself they say and what the British did ages ago, these two are doing the same. The Internet is one such means of communication and technology which connects an individual to global networks by just one click. The other side of it is that one click can erase the globe.

Cyber space is a world of connected computers, where information is so rapid that even a three hour flight will be slow in comparison to it, because of optical fibers as its medium of flow. Law is for governing conduct of an individual and restrain him to be in a way helping community living. But desire is the root cause of all sorrows, and is holding its validity even today. International Law is a public law applied in concurrence to requirements of global conduct. Law, where it lacks a rigid law on cyber warfare due interpretation of ‘use of power’ does not suit the computer world. Humanitarian touch to Cyber threat is really challenging as tracking the wrong-doer is difficult. But still there are few policies which are in letters rigid but coming to its spirits, it falls for fluidity of data.

Keywords: Cyberspace, National infrastructure, Internet, Cyber sovereignty, cross border, data fluidity, cyber threat, state sponsor cyber-wars.

 The greatest threat to humans is humans only, may find it as myth but it’s the harsh truth they need to be alarmed with. Not me, it was alerted by a few noble minds who referred to it as humans are the only species who have dug their own death pits. Having high end technology is a boon as well as curse, due to the involvement of the evil mindset of the human race, not only affecting their existence but also other living creations on this planet. Though the larger cranial capacity has flourished greater knowledge which may be equated to near to pinnacle but it has loose thread on another side in the names of ‘misuse’, ‘power dominance’.

The great power ideology in the international community has two faces one being soft power and other being, hard power where we will be focusing our research on and expression of the use of power, whether states are taking advantage of its application in cyber-wars. States nowadays try to show their dominance by disturbing the stability of other states, and being behind the computer and attacking the infrastructure of a state is discussed and why we cannot control these tendencies is highlighted upon.

Another thought of the decade is fast technology growth i.e internet use, seeing the usage of it experts feel that it is a good sign of development because we can trace its impact on lives of every individual who is just one click distance from any corners of the world.

The world where we see few big dad countries like America, Europe,Arabs,China likes to control other countries by enhancing Hard Power, which may be defined as usage of coercion, military, economic sanctions, debt trap, cyberspace wars and terrorism. 

Since Data is the new fuel of the 21^st century, it has many uses but the evil side of humans have misused this fuel vulnerability in burning the aspirations of people, state as a whole.

Ultimately, focusing on international co-operation, which is a key requirement in bringing a sense of national sovereignty, strong legal liability of cyber frauds and international treaties reflecting the accountability as it is seen in nuclear usage aspects. Protecting of state boundaries even through cross border operations, is a vital aspect of this writing and having an ethical internet behaviour among the users and building awareness among users to focus on what they click and educating them to high security internet usage, by giving them their right to use internet, both interest of nation and its citizens will flourish high.

“International Law is the body of rules which are legally binding on states in their intercourse with each other. These rules are primarily those which govern the relations of states but states are not only the subjects of it.International organization and to some extent individuals may be subjects of rights conferred and duties imposed by international law.”

It may be concluded that, at present, the world is in reality regarded as an international community and it is difficult to see how any community of nations can exist, save on the basis of law “ubi societas ibi jus” (where there is society, there is law). So a set of customs and treaties exists for regulating the conduct of the members of that community.

The essence of this conduct is needed to maintain international peace and security, to develop friendly relations among nations, to achieve co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural,and humanitarian character, lastly to provide the rights of self-determination to the peoples to reckon their freedom and human rights. 

State has not been defined anywhere but organizations have made certain qualifications of states,namely (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) a government; (d) capacity to enter into relations with other states; (e) an imaginary wall of cyberspace.

A famous understanding of Gandhi’s three monkeys can be referred to here which has evolved to a fourth monkey gazing phone. Though technology is in pocket its reach is far beyond the horizon. Yes, it's true that even walls of a room have ears. Nowadays with the advent of technology it has gained all senses, which people have named it as Alexa, Hey! Google, and other similar artificial intelligence tools.

So, an author of American-Canada origin William Gibson, has defined the term ‘cyberspace’, as the creation of a computer network in a world which is filled with artificially intelligent beings. Hence having an internet connection would land you in this cyberspace. Therefore, a technology which was essentially made to communicate, nowadays has become the part of the state when we see the amount of data which is created by it (via digital initiative policies). This data is so fluid that if you don’t protect it, it can erase the prominence of the state ,just like we permanently delete the files on our computer.

Usually we know our enemies while encountering a war situation, like we see Russia Vs Ukrainian, Iran Vs Israel, India Vs Pakistan etc. War is taken as an ultimate settlement of international disputes between the states. Everyone knows the impact of World Wars, even now we feel chilled talking about them. Thanks to a few international organizations like the United Nations, we have at least on papers brought some peace between the states. But, still we don’t know where, how, why, enmity still exists between humans when they ultimately know they have to die.

Regular wars have some amount of declaration that one nation is aggrieved against another. Cyber Warfare is such a War, where this lacks, states or non-states actors hide their identity because tracing million connections over the internet is like entering a room filled with mirrors, where ultimately one has to feel they are in a loop.

So, it involves the use of digital weapons to disrupt or destroy computer systems or cause damage to critical infrastructure of communication networks. It is relatively inexpensive when compared to conventional war. A Computer will act as a camouflage army of state or non-state actors. Hence, a firewall is more important nowadays than actual border walls.

When a state is behind that cyber warfare it becomes the state sponsored attacks.According to one economist intelligence unit and the cyber-security tech, 80 percent of companies are concerned whether they are victims of a state sponsored cyber breach. Technology usage again is questioned here, where we feel that somewhere a floating meteor is a threat to earth but in-reality the “RED BUTTON” is more dangerous.

Everyone is aware nowadays of this phrase, sounds funny but still acts as a tool of security verification. There are a million ways through which we can see wrong use of virtual domain i.e. internet. We see many crimes which are prevailing in society, from simple deceit to large scale breakdown of national sovereign websites. Yet the international humanitarian law does not extend its application unless it involves an armed conflict.

Today, the dependence of the internet is so wide that everyone is tangled by gadgets that will store data per minute/seconds. This data is the fuel which people misuse, which will affect human rights. Right to privacy is one such inalienable right, recognized by the supreme court in 2017. From undue access to one's personal details to denying people access to information through methods like internet shutdowns, are violations of the basic human rights granted to people.Cyber attacks have added an entirely new view to countries dangerous practice of stealing military secrets and other sensitive information and opened a window to undercover operation like espionage of designs of high end defence equipments. Humanitarian law on the armed conflicts speaks about few conduct of hostilities during a war, namely there must be distinction between civilians and military but the internet has no such criteria. If you're digitally active, then you are the target.Ultimately destroying humanity. Though, this box restricts robots but the real threat is from living ones, where we can not turn off their evil intentions with the same click! 

Cyber warfare is also termed as Cyber Attacks, are typically anonymous, disguised and rerouted through multiple accounts i.e computers. This invisible feature is why most states are hesitant to launch any counterattack, which has the ability to intensify global tensions and further escalate conflicts. To name a few,

1. Morris worm of 1988 - the first significant cyber-attack where we see sensitive information breach through cyber espionage.

2. Russia cyber attack on Estonia's national infrastructure, 2007 served as an alarm for governments worldwide, demonstrating the potential of it to disrupt critical services.

3. AIIMS Delhi ransomware, 2022 in India where we saw a major breach affecting the data of patients and it is found that India faced a 278% rise in cyber attacks from 2021 to 2023.

4. Stuxnet, a malicious computer worm believed to be jointly built by America or Israel, against the Iranian nuclear systems.

Therefore, Cyber attacks happen all the time whether they are publicized or not and states often mentioned are North Korea, China, Russia and Iran. Also the details behind the attacks are not released because the governments don’t know if the hackers were domestic bad elements or state sponsored. Releasing Cyber attacks may also weaken the targeted countries standing in the world stage and offer a moral victory for the attacking state.

 The second world war created so much terror in the minds of countries that when they established the United Nations, it was mentioned in the first paragraph of the preamble, “we the peoples of united nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind.” Also the very Article 2 of the charter said “all members shall refrain in their international relations from threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.”

We might feel that raising talks of peace can mitigate hatred, violence etc, they are so much rooted that we should focus on change in these organizations. 

After its establishment what maximum they have done is diplomatic talks, whenever necessary they have misused veto powers and finally the ego of becoming powerful nations.

This attitude of these organizations can earn a powerful status, but not what it is built for.

Being silent whenever a permanent member of it does wrong is, like justice being bought.

Great example is Russia-Ukrainian war and now its Iran-Israel war, what has organization have done in these regards is just diplomatic talks and result is unending war, very Article 41 and 42 of charter is violated clearly I.e ‘to maintain or restore international peace and security.

In 2010 the United Nations had a resolution that there will be a global culture of cyber-security and national efforts to protect critical infrastructure and information. But, when they can fire a missile, they are playing with 8mm bullets, is what I feel. They should try to focus on curated treaties on cyber security and encouraging digital ethics, among the member nations, and also each of the nations should bring out their own rules on cyber security by making use of experts in the field of internet. Education is one such tool to imbibe ethics in future generations and awareness, strong legal obligations on fluidity of cyber wars can alert the doers and will think at least once before they click next time.

Large efforts to clarify the application of international law to cyber warfare is this manual, outlining rules governing cyber operations in armed conflict. It points out 95 ‘black letter rules’ that interpret the issues of cyber like sovereignty, neutrality, use of force etc. Though it covered the outer spheres of law on armed conflict it is still not made legally binding and they have remained offline, seeing them just as a policy key.

As the old saying goes ‘prevention is better than cure’, but Cyberspace issues are complex and multi directed, which requires a combination of technological, organizational and diplomatic measures. So, some keys have to be clicked, namely

1. Countries shall focus on investing in robust cyber-security defenses, such as unbreakable firewalls, smart intrusion detectors and high end encryption technologies. Many software based companies to some extent have great minds, which the states must utilize in blocking these online attacks.

2. Strong Cyber laws and regulations that make them illegal for engaging in cyber warfare or malicious activities online. These laws have to be seen that they are implemented rigorously and uniformly across all sectors of development.

3. As we see all nations have come together to tackle the terrorism, globally they should cooperate among each other as the very nature of it is cross-border. By sharing data related to threats and attacks, marking their coordinates and listing fake websites etc. We should show integrity and oneness in the best way possible.

4. People i.e Users must be rewarded by educating them about cyber threats and how to avoid the fraudulent tendencies of cyber attacks, basically like protecting our systems with strong passwords, using true licensed software's and avoiding suspicious websites. People must refrain themselves from falling for lucrative advertisements like we have heard of honey traps, credit card scams and censored content.

5. Also a sense of responsibility should be promoted for cyber behaviour, ethical practice of the internet. Hacking a system requires an intelligent mind, but if the end result is bad that intelligence is of no use. So, countries should focus on job creation and opportunities, which will avoid bad results. White hat hackers must prevail over black hat hackers.

6. Lastly, the international norms must be standardized globally, reducing the risk of misunderstanding and promoting global internet health indexes,which show how solid their firewalls are and now and then they have to focus on reducing loop holes of policies affecting national sovereignty.

India is known for its exports in software services and we have some brilliant minds who are in that domain. Information Technology Act,2000, is an enactment dealing with online or electronic transactions and also defines cyber offenses. Along with it we have Indian Penal Code,1860, and the recent Digital Personal Data Protection act,2023. 

Also Indian Computer Emergency Response Team which we call CERT, acts as nodal agency for tracking such incidents. Cyber crime Investigation cells deal with investigating cyber cases.

Though we have a rigid law, due to the fluidity of cyber attacks it is just like locking the door and keeping the key below the doormat. Digital India campaign has seen such a surge in digital users that data is created every second and it is also to keep in mind that all the data is stored in foreign nations' centers. A 278% increase in cyber attacks was recorded in India between 2021 and 2023. Many governments official websites were targeted to ransomware, affecting their operations.Third party accountability has to be questioned here. Recent Artificial Intelligence Summit 2026, where tycoons were not even aware of what they should do, was a real question of vague policies that damages nation security.that brings us to the learning that even those tech giants don’t know about trending concepts of internet, because ultimately it is left to the usage of technology, if users are bad results are bad and vice-versa. So, it has become fashionable among youths and even adults to wear devices such as smart bands, watches which are not only regulating your health but in the background creating data of your health, network usage etc which is the source of main breach. For example, a recent trend is the leak of Epstein files, where a lot of sensitive data was collected and it disturbed the sleep of many individuals. Even this threat will be seen in Email bombing activity, where institutions, courts of law, temples, large shopping malls are the targets, where they message them regarding bombs kept in their premises and cause trouble in working of those premises.

So, no nation can be safe but, the only thing is we adopt safe usages of the internet, avoiding those traps will help us to be safe.

Cyber attacks are quite common and can negatively affect nations, their businesses and ultimately people. Every government has rightfully acknowledged cyber warfare as a budding threat, because even a small state having no army resources can only rely upon one computer which is connected to the internet, which can create a war like situation.

Another bad face is state actors sponsoring these activities, which promotes unethical use of expression ‘use of power’ is the concern because of false accusations.

So, it may be that cyber warfare is done by state or not, results will be devastating depending upon the purpose and target. A single program or click can bring a lot of errors in working of websites, banking services portals, breach of sensitive information of high end statesmen and  totally crushing the infrastructure. Computer and national security must be taught to new generations and develop their skill sets in combating against these online attacks.

International law is for global usage so making use of these large human capital to coordinate for building measures to nip the budding cyber threat. Where states should protect their sovereignty both digitally and physically. To achieve that negligence should be taken away and treat the problem of cyber attack seriously and work on it as one. A universal level of co-operation is required between them to mitigate this issue and serve the next generations with a well protected digital future and well behaved online users. Well crafted treaties are in requirement for the purpose of co-operation because the little accountability will be shown by states fearing international sanctions and cutting down the sponsored illegal threats. Cyber crimes are a menace to international community, which is not regulated in proper spirits due to tracking defaults, though laws have made clear what kind of violations they are for example hacking, computer phishing, data theft, breach of secured networks, malicious threat to software's etc, though we know the process, but still it's hard to find the source of infection and by means they are found anyway states refuse to accept their weakness in protecting that breach, which will morally bring down that state aspirations to ground. As nations are adjusting to evolving technologies, they should also be ready for its damages and load itself with anti virus protections and a scrutiny in its working.

At last Cyber peace keeping must be the 19th sustainable development goal of global countries, which will protect and bring changes in usage of the internet.

• Dr. H.O.Agarwal, International Law and Human Rights (23^rd edition 2024)

• K.S.Puttaswamy vs Union of India & others, 2017 10 SCC 1

• The United Nations Charter 1945.

•  “Study on State Sponsored Cyber Warfare”, www.iim.org.in (accessed on March 11,2026)

• Duncan.B.Hollis, ‘A brief primer on international law and Cyberspace’( Jun 2021), www.carnegieendowment.org.in (accessed on March 11,2026).