Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

The Ethics of Information Warfare pp 25–37Cite as

The Future Impact of a Long Period of Limited Cyberwarfare on the Ethics of Warfare

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Law, Governance and Technology Series ((LGTS,volume 14))

Abstract

In this essay, I will first summarize some of the main and most controversial published claims in my recent work on ethical considerations in cyberwarfare (The Ethics of Cyberwarfare, Journal of Military Ethics). I will then expand and critique some of these claims. Finally, I will turn to discuss some of the ways in which information systems, the internet, and even international relations may change because of a coming era of cyberwarfare.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    The positive characteristics of such retaliatory strategies of conflict were popularized in studies by Robert Axelrod and others, but the main outline of the view, including its application to international affairs, had long before been described by Thomas Schelling and others (Schelling 1960, 1980).

  2. 2.

    Even cyberwarfare treaty optimists suggest it may be decades until we have the verification tools and other agreements necessary for meaningful verification. See (Rowe et al. 2011).

  3. 3.

    Dual wires were used extensively for military telegraphy of secret information as early as the U.S. Civil War (including using rails) and for telephony in WW I. In that latter war it occurred to engineers that it would vastly simplify the stringing of wires if one used just one wire, using the ground (the earth itself) to complete the circuit. However German engineers realized this, and by tapping the earth at two places between the ends of the circuit, were able to detect the minute currents and effectively read the messages. It is now possible to detect magnetic and radio fluctuations at truly minute levels (as utilized in MRI technology), and, because the currents are so slight in modern digital wires, it is also possible to disrupt them using an external device if they are unshielded or poorly shielded. (And, in the worst case of EMP weapons, to fuse circuitry and destroy the semiconductors.)

  4. 4.

    One little noted possibility is that even the most sophisticated encryption techniques become quickly breakable, either by hardware techniques or algorithms. A worse possibility is that the widespread assumption that, in computational complexity theory, P ≠ NP. If this turns out incorrect, all encryption techniques are breakable.

Bibliography

  • Axelrod, R. 1984. The Evolution of Cooperation. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Christopher, P. 1999. The ethics of war and peace: An introduction to legal and moral issues. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, Richard, R. Knake. 2010. Cyber war: The next threat to national security and what to do about it. New York: HarperCollins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dipert, R. R. 2006a. Strategies, rationality, and game theory in the philosophy of war, paper. Joint Service Academy Conference on Professional Ethics (JSCOPE now ISME). Springfield, VA. http://isme.tamu.edu/JSCOPE06/Dipert06.html. Accessed 3 Nov 2013.

  • Dipert, R. R. 2006b. Preventive war and the epistemological dimension of the morality of war. Journal of Military Ethics 5 (1): 32–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dipert, R.R. 2010. The ethics of cyberwarfare. Journal of Military Ethics 9 (4): 384–410.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dipert, R.R. 2013a. Other-than-Internet (OTI) warfare: Challenges for ethics, law, and policy. Journal of Military Ethics 12 (1): 34–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dipert, R.R. 2013b. The Essential Features of an Ontology for Cyberwarfare. In Conflict and Cooperation in Cyberspace, ed. P. Yannakogeorgos and A. Lowther, 35–48. New York: Taylor & Francis.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Falliere, Nicholas, L. O. Murchu, Eric Chien. 2011. Symantec Corporation: W32.Stuxnet Dossier. www.symantec.com/content/en/…/whitepapers/w32_stuxnet_dossier.pdf.‎ Accessed 1 Feb 2011.

  • Libicki, M. 2009. Cyberdeterrence and cyberwar. Santa Monica: RAND Corporation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Libicki, M. 2012. Panel on response to cyberattacks: The attribution problem. The McCain Conference, organized by the Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership. U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis MD April, 2012. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI7TLqTt0H0. Accessed 3 November 2013.

  • McMahan, Jeff. 2011. Killing in war. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Orend, B. 2005. War. In The Stanford Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/war/. Accessed 13 Sep 2012.

  • Owens, W., K. Dam, H. Lin. 2009. Technology, law, and ethics regarding US acquisition of cyberattack capabilities. Washington, DC: National Research Council of the National Academies of Science.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reichberg, G., H. Syse, E. Begby. 2006. The ethics of war: Classic and contemporary readings. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rowe, N. 2006. A Taxonomy of Deception in Cyberspace. International Conference on Information Warfare and Security. Princess Anne, MD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rowe, N. 2009. The ethics of cyberweapons. International Journal of Cyberethics 1 (1): 20–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rowe, N. 2010. Toward reversible cyberattacks. In Warfare and cyber terrorism, ed. L. Janczewski and A. Colarik. Hershey: Information Science Reference.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rowe, J., E.J. Crusty. 2010. Deception in cyber attacks. In Warfare and cyber terrorism, ed. L. Janczewski and A. Colarik. Hershey: Information Science Reference.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rowe, Neil, et al. 2011. Challenges in monitoring cyberarms compliance. International Journal of Cyberwarfare 1 (1): 1–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schelling, T. 1960, 1980. The strategy of conflict. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmitt, Michael. 2002. Wired warfare: Computer network attack and jus in bello. International Review of the Red Cross 84 (8): 346–365.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmitt, Michael, H.H. Dinniss, T.C. Wingfield. 2004. “Computers and War: The Legal Battlespace,” publication of the International Humanitarian Law Research Initiative, Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research at Harvard University www.hpcrresearch.org/sites/default/files/publications/schmittetal.pdf. Accessed 5 July 2012.

  • Walzer, M. 2006. Just and unjust wars. 4th ed. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA

    Randall R. Dipert

Authors
  1. Randall R. Dipert
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Randall R. Dipert .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

    Luciano Floridi

  2. Politics and International Studies, Research Fellow in Cyber Security and Ethics, PAIS, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom

    Mariarosaria Taddeo

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Dipert, R. (2014). The Future Impact of a Long Period of Limited Cyberwarfare on the Ethics of Warfare. In: Floridi, L., Taddeo, M. (eds) The Ethics of Information Warfare. Law, Governance and Technology Series, vol 14. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04135-3_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation