Cyber War Rule Of Engagement Drawn Up

The world needs to draw up new accords on online warfare to deal with the growing dangers of attacks in cyberspace, David Cameron and fellow international leaders will be told on Friday.


Hillary Clinton will join David Cameron and Angela Merkel at the Munich Security Conference Photo: EPA

Proposals for adapting the Geneva and Hague conventions to provide “rules of engagement” for “cyber war” will be delivered to the Munich Security Conference by American and Russian experts at the influential EastWest Institute, a New York-based think-tank.

World leaders attending the annual Munich gathering include Mr Cameron, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor.

The EastWest Institute will argue that the new rules will be needed to protect civilian facilities such as hospitals and schools from being hit in future online conflicts.

The team will tell the security conference that discriminating between military and civilian targets and identifying attackers presents major new challenges in the internet era.

They believe that current laws of war in the Geneva and Hague accords no longer suffice when all organisations rely so heavily on their online operations. The report calls for a fresh definition of “nation state”, with new “territories” and players, such as non-governmental organisations.

By Philip Sherwell 12:28AM GMT 04 Feb 2011

Source: The Telegraph

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