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Hackers Can Be Battlefield Targets, Says Nato Report
NATO's new cyberwarfare handbook says that civilian hackers who cyberattack during military campaigns may be targeted as enemy combatants.
Credit: Destructoid
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is releasing a cyberwarfare handbook, the Tallinn Manual, stating that civilian hackers who carry out cyberattacks during coordinated military campaigns can be targeted as combatants.
With the goal of applying existing battlefield rules to the Internet, NATO's think tank, the Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence, commissioned the report, with input from the U.S. Cyber Command and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The handbook limits the types of networks that NATO members and their allies can strike, with civilian targets such as hospitals, dams, and nuclear power stations disallowed. The handbook provides for "proportionate countermeasures" in response to a strike, with lethal force against hackers only allowed in response to cyberattacks that resulted in death or significant property damage.
"You can only use force when you reach the level of armed conflict," says the handbook's lead author, U.S. Naval War College professor Michael Schmitt.
"Everyone talks about cyberspace as though it's the wild west. We discovered that there's plenty of law that applies to cyberspace."
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