Cyberspace as Military Domain: Monitoring Cyberweapons

Abstract

To create trust and security in Cyberspace international actors try to set clear rules for the use of cyber weapons. To support this attempt cyber weapons are often compared to nuclear weapons. However, cyber armament has in comparison to conventional nuclear arms control and disarmament one strong advantage. The domain is—in contrast to air, space, sea and land—completely man made, and its rules are based in the code. Every functional principle is defined and created by people or, rather, international committees. These committees develop technologies for cyberspace and decide about their deployment. This provides a strong point for legislation and means that principles can be further established to support the peaceful development of this domain, to create transparency where it’s necessary and to support measures for international political stability. On a national level, recent political debates on the implementation and institutionalization of processes—such as a vulnerabilities equities process that makes decisions about the disclosure of computer security vulnerabilities that are used or held secret by state institutions—will provide important experience for how the assessment of hazardousness and the possible impact of malicious cyber tools can be used for future arms control institutions.