One important consideration is whether the attack is the work of a lone hacker, a criminal group or a government. But there is no consensus yet on what that right means in the event of an attack on a country's computer networks. Charter, states have the right to go to war if they come under an "armed attack" from another state. "One nation might do something that another nation takes to be an act of war, even when the first nation did not intend it to be an act of war." "If nations don't know what the rules are, all sorts of accidental problems might arise," says Harvard law professor Jack Goldsmith. Uncertainty about the legal and ethical limits of state behavior in cyberspace could have disastrous consequences. Professor Daniel Ryan, National Defense University We don't know when or if a cyberattack rises to the level of an 'armed attack.' The emergence of electronic and cyberwar-fighting capabilities is the most important military development in decades, but it is not yet clear how existing treaties and conventions might apply in this new domain of conflict. It is no surprise, then, that many legal experts, diplomats and military commanders around the world are now debating how to extend the law of war to cyberspace. Professional militaries train with the rules of war in mind, recognizing that abiding by them works to their benefit as much as to the enemy's. They serve as guidelines that, when honored, provide some protection to civilians. Various treaties and the United Nations Charter and the Hague and Geneva conventions are able to draw official distinctions between victims and aggressors. It may come as a surprise to some war victims, but there actually is a body of international law that establishes when and how nations can legally engage in armed conflict. Here, flights bound for Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport are highlighted on a monitor. Air traffic control systems are part of the national infrastructure that may someday come under attack, experts say.
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