Hacking as an act of war

Once the exclusive domain of a small number of geniuses, hacking has gone mainstream as an element of national defense.

The United States has established a four-star Cyber Command to provide coordinated military digital response after suffering massive data breaches. NATO established the Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence in Estonia after that nation was the target of extensive cyber attacks.

When Georgian government systems came under cyber attack during the Russian offensive in Abkhasia and South Ossetia, the nation shifted critical Internet assets to a private hosting company in Atlanta, USA. Subsequently those systems came under attack.

At what point does hacking (read, “computer network attack”) rise to the level of warfare? Could United Nations Article 51 be invoked to engage collective self-defense against an attacker? How well informed are political leaders that will decide how a nation will pursue its cyber objectives? What role should we play as cyber-citizens? We’ll examine some of the skirmishes that have set the stage for all-out cyberwarfare, and explore reasons why we haven’t yet fought the “big one.”

View G. Mark Hardy’s video from Shmoocon 2013 below: