Methods and Means of Cyber Warfare

• Author: William H. Boothby
• Position: Air Commodore, Royal Air Force (Ret.)
• Pages: 387-405

Methods and Means of Cyber Warfare Vol. 89

387

C

Methods and Means of

Cyber Warfare

William H. Boothby*

I. WHAT IS A CYBER WEAPON?

entral to the conduct of hostilities in an armed conflict are the tools

and techniques with which the fight is undertaken. In non-cyber warfare,

the tools, that is, the missiles, bombs, rifles, bayonets, mines, bullets and

other weapons and associated equipment, are employed in ways that differ

according to the military purpose that it is being sought after. These twin

ideas of “military tools” and of the ways in which they are employed can be

applied equally to cyber warfare. It follows that we should consider how

the law that regulates, respectively, the tools or means of warfare and the

ways or methods whereby those tools are used should properly be applied

in the cyber context.

Any discussion of cyber methods and means of warfare should take as

its starting point the more general notion of means and methods of war-

fare. Means of warfare consist of all weapons, weapons platforms and as-

sociated equipment used directly to deliver force during hostilities. Meth-

ods of warfare consist of the ways in which weapons are used in hostilities.

Weapons are devices, munitions, implements, substances, objects or

pieces of equipment which generate an offensive capability that can be ap-

* Air Commodore, Royal Air Force (Ret.).

International Law Studies 2013

388

plied to an enemy person or object.

1

The Manual on the Law of Air and Mis-

sile Warfare (AMW Manual) defines the term “weapon” as “a means of war-

fare used in combat operations, including a gun, missile, bomb or other

munitions, that is capable of causing either (i) injury to, or death of, per-

sons; or (ii) damage to, or destruction of, objects.”

2

The accompanying

commentary makes the point that the force used need not be kinetic, citing

the effects produced by certain computer network operations.

3

In its Glos-

sary of Military Terms, the U.S. Department of Defense defines a weapon

system as “[a] combination of one or more weapons with all related

equipment, materials, services, personnel, and means of delivery or de-

ployment (if applicable) required for self-sufficiency.”

4

The AMW Manual

characterizes “means of warfare” as “weapons, weapon systems or plat-

forms employed for the purposes of attack”

5

with the result that means of

warfare involves not just weapon systems, but also equipment used to con-

trol, facilitate or direct the conduct of hostilities.

6

Weapons as conventionally understood can take a variety of forms.

While some weapons, such as bombs, rockets, bullets, artillery shells and

the like generate their destructive effect by the use of kinetic force, other

kinds of weapons, such as gases, chemical and biological agents achieve

1

. WILLIAM H. BOOTHBY, WEAPONS AND THE LAW OF ARMED CONFLICT 4, 344

(2009).

2

. PROGRAM ON HUMANITARIAN POLICY AND CONFLICT RESEARCH, MANUAL ON

INTERNATIONAL LAW APPLICABLE TO AIR AND MISSILE WARFARE rule 1(ff) (2009). The

Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research at Harvard Univer sity (HPCR)

convened a group of international legal e xperts to review and restate the existing law of air

and miss ile warfare. At the end of a multi-year process HPCR published the Manual on

International Law Applicable to Air and Missile Warfare, which contains the black-letter rules

reflecting the overall consensus of the legal experts of the existing law of international

armed conflict bearing on air and missile warfare. HPCR also published the COMMEN-

TARY ON THE HPCR MANUAL ON INTERNATIONAL LAW APPLICABLE TO AIR AND MIS-

SILE WARFARE (2010) [hereinafter AMW COMMENTARY]. In the Comme ntary e ach Black-

letter Rule is accompanied by a commentary intended to provide explanations of the rule.

For ease of citation, citatio ns in this article will be to the Commentary since it contains both

the rules and their associated commentary.

3

. AMW COMMENTARY, supra note 2, rule 1(ff) cmt. ¶ 1, at 55.

4

. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joint Publication 1-02, DOD Dictionary of Military and As-

sociated Terms (Nov. 8, 2010), as amended through July 15, 2012, http://www.

dtic.mil/doctrine/new_pubs/jp1_02.pdf.

5

. AMW COMMENTARY, supra note 2, rule 1(t), at 41.

6

. Id., rule 1(ff) cmt. ¶ 3, at 55.