Cyber Attacks, Russian Hybrid Warfare
Russia seems to be behind a series of Denial of Service Attacks on essential infrastructure in Ukraine. We know security services, the defense department, and banks were hit. This is partially to create chaos.
This is in preparation for invasion and is a new way to prepare the battlefield. Russia has used this in the past. They have done this in Latvia for example. This though may avoid the term cyber attack since it was not followed by military operations.
While the Russian cyber operations in Latvia should be condemned and Russia should take responsibility for its actions, according to international law, the October 2018 attack does not rise to the legal definition of a cyberattack or cyberwarfare because there was no ongoing armed conflict between Latvia and Russia.
The Tallinn Manual 2.0, published by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and international law experts, is the current most comprehensive, but non-binding, source on international law and cyber operations. According to the manual, “A cyberattack is a cyber operation, whether offensive or defensive, that is reasonably expected to cause injury or death to persons or damage or destruction to objects,” during an armed conflict.[1] However, under the Tallinn Manual, cyber espionage — or any act that is used “to gather, or attempt to gather information” — is…