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Ethics and Cyber Warfare: The Quest for Responsible Security in the Age of Digital Warfare
From North Korea's recent attacks on Sony to perpetual news reports of successful hackings and criminal theft, cyber conflict has emerged as a major topic of public concern. Yet even as attacks on military, civilian, and commercial targets have escalated, there is not yet a clear set of ethical guidelines that apply to cyber warfare. Indeed, like terrorism, cyber warfare is commonly believed to be a war without rules. Given the prevalence cyber warfare, developing a practical moral code for this new form of conflict is more important than ever.
In Ethics and Cyber Warfare, internationally-respected ethicist George Lucas delves into the confounding realm of cyber conflict. Comparing "state-sponsored hacktivism" to the transformative impact of "irregular warfare" in conventional armed conflict, Lucas offers a critique of legal approaches to governance, and outlines a new approach to ethics and "just war" reasoning. Lucas draws upon the political philosophies of Alasdair MacIntyre, John Rawls, and Jurgen Habermas to provide a framework for understanding these newly-emerging standards for cyber conflict, and ultimately presents a professional code of ethics for a new generation of "cyber warriors."
Lucas concludes with a discussion of whether preemptive self-defense efforts - such as the massive government surveillance programs revealed by Edward Snowden - can ever be justified, addressing controversial topics such as privacy, anonymity, and public trust. Well-reasoned and timely, Ethics and Cyber Warfare is a must-read for anyone with an interest in philosophy, ethics, or cybercrime.
"
In Ethics and Cyber Warfare, internationally-respected ethicist George Lucas delves into the confounding realm of cyber conflict. Comparing "state-sponsored hacktivism" to the transformative impact of "irregular warfare" in conventional armed conflict, Lucas offers a critique of legal approaches to governance, and outlines a new approach to ethics and "just war" reasoning. Lucas draws upon the political philosophies of Alasdair MacIntyre, John Rawls, and Jurgen Habermas to provide a framework for understanding these newly-emerging standards for cyber conflict, and ultimately presents a professional code of ethics for a new generation of "cyber warriors."
Lucas concludes with a discussion of whether preemptive self-defense efforts - such as the massive government surveillance programs revealed by Edward Snowden - can ever be justified, addressing controversial topics such as privacy, anonymity, and public trust. Well-reasoned and timely, Ethics and Cyber Warfare is a must-read for anyone with an interest in philosophy, ethics, or cybercrime.
"
- GenresTechnology
208 pages, Hardcover
Published December 13, 2016
4 people are currently reading
52 people want to read
About the author
George Lucas
11 books2 followersFor the creator of the Star Wars films, see George Lucas.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 28, 2022
After nearly blinding myself with the smallest text known to man, I thought this book was pretty great at what it set out to do. The heavy philosophical bit was slow to work through, but I liked the section on the NSA and the creation of norms in cyber.
March 12, 2017
This was a challenging book. A difficult book on current events. One that I had to put earplugs in to read, since I was rereading paragraphs over and over again. Basically, I expected more on Cyber Warfare, and less on Capital-E Ethics. I didn't have the background knowledge for this one, and that slowed down my reading and my comprehension significantly.
George R. Lucas Jr. (no, not THAT George Lucas, sorry) is an expert on Ethics, Military, Technology, and Warfare. He posits that there is a need to consider whether Cyber Warfare needs to be specifically categorized and codified within the existing International Law and practices of armed conflict; specifically, whether actions such as the Stuxnet attack against centrifuges in Iran and a 2007 DDoS attack against Estonia fall within legal frameworks of Just War.
Lucas considers three points: jus ad bellum (statesmen choosing to go to war), jus in bello (military forces actually waging war), and the recently-coined jus in silico (justification of cyber conflict)
Within jus ad bellum, those choosing whether to act need to consider these factors:
* Just cause (does the actor have significant and compelling reasons for action)
* Right intentions (is the actor truly breaking norms and law because they're acting on behalf of public welfare)
* Last resort (has the actor tried all other efforts and actions, and failed)
* Legitimate authority (does the actor have the right and ability to act under accepted norms and under moral, legal, ethical grounds)
* Proportionality (is the actor using methods and tactics that are less damaging than the acts they're trying to prevent would cause)
* Publicity (does the actor have standing within peer review or have support of the public in committing these acts)
Within jus in bellum, those choosing whether to act need to consider these factors:
* Prevention of superfluous injury (humanity of the actions)
* Military necessity (actions of force or threat must be used)
* Proportionality (the economy of force of the actions compared with the cause of harm to others)
* Distinction (actions should avoid noncombatants and/or civilian targets)
* Command responsibility (accountability of the actor or actors to others)
Lucas then examines whether jus in silico fits within these frameworks. He argues that it potentially does, since things like Stuxnet were able to simply affect the centrifuges and didn't actually harm people working with them, much less civilians, in the same way that bombs might cause more widespread death and destruction of much larger amounts of property).
Finally, Lucas ends his discussion of the differences between moral values (basic fundamental principles), ethical principles (how people within a particular cultural system are expected to behave in terms of loyalty and trust), laws (the codification of ethics within a system, imposed by those in authority), and norms (the best practices that emerge within a community, culture, or profession and are accepted by the stakeholders within that group). He applies those both to jus in silica and the committing of acts in cyberspace that are of parallel impact to conventional warfare. He also applies these norms and practices to whistleblowers like Edward Snowden, conveying that Snowden broke norms of trust within one's profession, ultimately arguing that Snowden didn't pursue other avenues before acting in a "last-resort" fashion.
There is a LOT to digest here, and I feel like Lucas could have arranged things differently in his explanations. A lot of the definitions in Chapter 4 -- Genuine Ethics versus "Folk Morality" in Cyberspace -- would have given someone like me a LOT more background knowledge on the considerations and even the definitions of things like Ethics, Morals, Norms, jus ad bellum, jus in bello, etc. in terms of the practice and understanding of Ethics.
Finally, this dude LOVES his endnotes. Each chapter has multiple pages of endnotes. I strongly believe that the use of footnotes in place of endnotes would have been extremely useful for a reader like me who is having some difficulty digesting the material. It's not helpful to have to bounce back and forth within the material to see whether a note simply says "see this article for more" or whether the note directly expands upon the material in such a way that understanding cannot be created without it.
I definitely feel like I have benefitted from reading this, if only to have a wider picture of what is going on with regard to cyber warfare, and a much better understanding of Ethics / morals / norms / etc. But I really wish I had more of that background knowledge pre-loaded (either personally or from better arrangement of the text) so that I would have gleaned more from the text.
George R. Lucas Jr. (no, not THAT George Lucas, sorry) is an expert on Ethics, Military, Technology, and Warfare. He posits that there is a need to consider whether Cyber Warfare needs to be specifically categorized and codified within the existing International Law and practices of armed conflict; specifically, whether actions such as the Stuxnet attack against centrifuges in Iran and a 2007 DDoS attack against Estonia fall within legal frameworks of Just War.
Lucas considers three points: jus ad bellum (statesmen choosing to go to war), jus in bello (military forces actually waging war), and the recently-coined jus in silico (justification of cyber conflict)
Within jus ad bellum, those choosing whether to act need to consider these factors:
* Just cause (does the actor have significant and compelling reasons for action)
* Right intentions (is the actor truly breaking norms and law because they're acting on behalf of public welfare)
* Last resort (has the actor tried all other efforts and actions, and failed)
* Legitimate authority (does the actor have the right and ability to act under accepted norms and under moral, legal, ethical grounds)
* Proportionality (is the actor using methods and tactics that are less damaging than the acts they're trying to prevent would cause)
* Publicity (does the actor have standing within peer review or have support of the public in committing these acts)
Within jus in bellum, those choosing whether to act need to consider these factors:
* Prevention of superfluous injury (humanity of the actions)
* Military necessity (actions of force or threat must be used)
* Proportionality (the economy of force of the actions compared with the cause of harm to others)
* Distinction (actions should avoid noncombatants and/or civilian targets)
* Command responsibility (accountability of the actor or actors to others)
Lucas then examines whether jus in silico fits within these frameworks. He argues that it potentially does, since things like Stuxnet were able to simply affect the centrifuges and didn't actually harm people working with them, much less civilians, in the same way that bombs might cause more widespread death and destruction of much larger amounts of property).
Finally, Lucas ends his discussion of the differences between moral values (basic fundamental principles), ethical principles (how people within a particular cultural system are expected to behave in terms of loyalty and trust), laws (the codification of ethics within a system, imposed by those in authority), and norms (the best practices that emerge within a community, culture, or profession and are accepted by the stakeholders within that group). He applies those both to jus in silica and the committing of acts in cyberspace that are of parallel impact to conventional warfare. He also applies these norms and practices to whistleblowers like Edward Snowden, conveying that Snowden broke norms of trust within one's profession, ultimately arguing that Snowden didn't pursue other avenues before acting in a "last-resort" fashion.
There is a LOT to digest here, and I feel like Lucas could have arranged things differently in his explanations. A lot of the definitions in Chapter 4 -- Genuine Ethics versus "Folk Morality" in Cyberspace -- would have given someone like me a LOT more background knowledge on the considerations and even the definitions of things like Ethics, Morals, Norms, jus ad bellum, jus in bello, etc. in terms of the practice and understanding of Ethics.
Finally, this dude LOVES his endnotes. Each chapter has multiple pages of endnotes. I strongly believe that the use of footnotes in place of endnotes would have been extremely useful for a reader like me who is having some difficulty digesting the material. It's not helpful to have to bounce back and forth within the material to see whether a note simply says "see this article for more" or whether the note directly expands upon the material in such a way that understanding cannot be created without it.
I definitely feel like I have benefitted from reading this, if only to have a wider picture of what is going on with regard to cyber warfare, and a much better understanding of Ethics / morals / norms / etc. But I really wish I had more of that background knowledge pre-loaded (either personally or from better arrangement of the text) so that I would have gleaned more from the text.
May 12, 2019
This is the most authoritative account of cyber warfare on the market. Lucas has applied his expertise on military ethics to a wide range of cyber technologies and has given readers practical ways to think through their ethical and unethical uses.
March 17, 2017
George Lucas has a great perspective on our present state of security in all our institutions that are now on the digital landscape. The reality of our American financial institutions and the possible security breeches that can dismantle society. I will read this again. Now with the emergence of cryptocurrency, what our future holds still remains what WE as a people do with our present situation.
January 4, 2017
This is a very thought provoking book for anyone looking to understand more about cyber warfare and the ethics that surround it. Lucas does a good job of explaining the issues related to cyber warfare and outlining relevant legal and moral interpretations. Recommended for any operational military officers.
February 1, 2017
Without a doubt the most comprehensive and clear-headed discussion of its subject matter I have ever encountered.
Would serve as a great survey text for a class or discussion group dealing with these issues.
I understand the author's desire for completeness, but I think he places a little too much emphasis on the philosophical underpinnings of the discourse.
Would serve as a great survey text for a class or discussion group dealing with these issues.
I understand the author's desire for completeness, but I think he places a little too much emphasis on the philosophical underpinnings of the discourse.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews