Keeping the Cyber Peace: International Legal Aspects of Cyber Activities in Peace Operations

• Author: Jann K. Kleffner - Heather A. Harrison Dinniss
• Position: Head of the International Law Centre, Associate Professor of International Law, Swedish National Defence College - Postdoctoral Research Fellow, International Law Centre, Swedish National Defence College
• Pages: 512-535

International Law Studies 2013

512

I

Keeping the Cyber Peace:

International Legal Aspects of Cyber

Activities in Peace Operations

Jann K. Kleffner and Heather A. Harrison Dinniss*

I. INTRODUCTION

n recent years it has become an oft-cited truism that the majority of

twenty-first century armed conflicts will contain a cyber element. The 2008

conflict between Russia and Georgia was the first publically available indi-

cator of how cyber and conventional force might be used together in an

inter-State conflict.

1

Beyond such a relatively clear-cut instance of full-

blown international armed conflict, many ongoing situations of crisis, both

below and above the level of armed conflict, have attracted a significant

and persistent cyber component. Examples include the cyber intifada be-

tween Israeli and Palestinian hackers, which has continued since the in-

crease in violence at the outset of the second intifada in 2000; the dispute

* Jann K. Kleffner, Head of the International Law Centre, Associate Professor of In-

ternational Law, Swedish National Defence College; Heather A. Harris on Dinniss, Post-

doctoral Resear ch Fellow, Inte rnational Law Centre, Swedish National Defence College.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the research assistance of Lisen Bergqvist.

1

. It should be noted that the attacks against Georgia were not attributed to the Rus-

sian Federation, but rather to so-called “patriotic hackers.” Analysts did note, however,

the high degree of coordination between the actions of the conventional armed force s and

the targets of the cyber attacks. For a summary of the reports on the cy ber incidents, see

ENEKEN TIKK, KADRI KASKA & LIIS VIHUL, INTERNATIONAL CYBER INCIDENTS: LEGAL

CONSIDERATIONS (2010).

Legal Aspects of Cyber Activities in Peace Operations Vol. 89

513

between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, which has an ongoing and per-

nicious cyber element involving groups on both sides with varying degrees

of alleged State sponsorship; and the Arab Spring, in which many of the

States involved used a variety of Internet surveillance, monitoring, censor-

ship and control techniques, and in some cases—notably Tunisia and more

recently Syria—hacked the accounts and Internet content of individuals

engaged in the revolution.

2

At the same time, there is a discernible trend on the part of the UN Se-

curity Council to authorize various forms of peace operations tasked with

an array of functions that are deployed into situations of armed conflicts

and other crises. A combination of both trends—the increase of conflict

and crisis situations with a cyber component and the deployment of com-

plex peace operations—makes it only natural to assume that peacekeepers

will increasingly find themselves on missions in which cyber incidents will

occur during, following or even in the absence of, conventional hostilities.

Indeed, recent reports have raised the concept of stand-alone cyber peace-

keepers. The suggestion that the United Nations should employ specific

personnel to deal with the increasing number of cyber incidents taking

place between States is indicative of the relevance of cyber operations for

the conduct of UN-mandated peace operations.

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Although the feasibility

of cyber-only peacekeeping occurring outside the context of a military op-

eration has been largely dismissed by technical experts,

4

from a purely legal

perspective it would certainly be within the purview of the Security Council

to determine that cyber operations (whether in a specific situation or as a

more general concept) amount to a threat to international peace and securi-

ty under Article 39 of the UN Charter and to authorize those actions that it

considers appropriate.

5

2

. BEN WAGNER, DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR EXTERNAL POLICIES OF THE

EUROPEAN UNION, AFTER THE ARAB SPRING: NEW PATHS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND

THE INTERNET IN EUROPEAN FOREIGN POLICY 6–13 (2012); Ben Brumfield, Computer

Spyware is Newest Weapon in Syrian Conflict, CNN (Feb. 17, 2012, 4:41 PM), http://www.cnn.

com/2012/02/17/tech/web/computer-virus-syria.

3

. Susan Watts, Call for Cyberwar “Peacekeepers” Force , BBC NEWS (Jan. 26, 2012, 17:40

GMT), http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/9687338.stm.

4

. Ellyne Phneah, Idea of Cy ber Peacekeepers Premature, “Redundant,” ZDNET NEWS (Feb.

6, 2012, 10:35 GMT), http://www.zdnet.com/idea-of-cyber-peacekeepers-premature -

redundant-2062303742/.

5

. See generally HEATHER HARRISON DINNISS, CYBER WARFARE AND THE LAWS OF

WAR 109–13 (2012).