Cybersecurity and the Age of Privateering: A Historical Analogy (original) (raw)

Hostes Humani Generis: Cyberspace, the Sea, and Sovereign Control

Cyberspace is a new global space that is yet not fully explored nor effectively regulated. The authors are not sketching a regulatory framework for cyberspace, but instead are inclined to glean valuable experience from the developments in the regulation of other global spaces, especially the sea. First, the peculiarities of cyberspace and cybercrime are briefly outlined. Then, the other global spaces are analysed drawing comparisons between exploration, appropriation and regulations of the sea and the air and cyberspace. The authors suggest that it is vital to learn lessons from the past in order to achieve an effective model of regulation of cyberspace. One of the main focus points of the paper is the position of a pirate and the ways of regulating piracy in different global spaces.

CYBER WAR, CYBERED CONFLICT, AND THE MARITIME DOMAIN

How cyber assaults and government responses have been interpreted is not uniform, however, especially with regard to whether the world will eventually engage in “cyber war.” There is a community of scholars and analysts who argue that cyber war will not happen or that the impact of cyberspace on armed conflict will be limited. Others in the broad field of security studies, traditional computer science, or corporate communities claim that while some form of conflict is happening, government officials, military officers, and legislators are suffering from “threat inflation.” They argue that hyperbolic projections are leading to bad policy decisions, especially with regard to specific adversaries, and that there has been overinvestment in offensive cyber weapons rather than prudent defensivemeasures. A best-selling nonfiction book has been criticized for contributing unnecessarily to public fears about the potential for cyber warfare. Many of these critics argue that what are being called “cyber attacks” are really instances of espionage, allowed by international law, or simply crime, which is not the mission area of the nation’s military services. Some analysts detect the influence of the military-industrial complex on policy debates. If hackers, official or not, from China and Russia, terrorists, and criminals use the Internet to penetrate U.S government systems, contractors see opportunities for increased revenue. As two observers of cyberspace argue, “There’s an arms race in cyberspace, and a massively exploding new cyber-industrial complex that serves it.” Our position on this ongoing debate is that neither side has it right.

From Global Commons to Territorial Seas: A Naval Analogy for the Nationalization of Cyberspace

Military Cyber Affairs

As one of the engines of modern globalization, the internet is perceived as having broken down barriers between cultures, ideologies and societies, and created a "democratization of technology." An analogy generated by this perception is that cyberspace is a "global common" similar to the oceanic "high seas" to which individuals and nations can (or at least should) maintain equal and unfettered access. Not only is this analogy incorrect, its usage makes it is hard for political decision-makers to grasp the enormity of the threat to American infrastructure, global trade, and current prosperity posed by our cyber vulnerabilities. The reality is that authoritarian governments-with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the lead-have transformed the cyber "global common" into "territorial seas" in which others pass unmolested only at their sufferance, and to which access can be denied. Unfortunately, once an analogy takes hold in the popular or academic minds, it becomes the central core of explanation and defies most logical counterarguments. The analogy of cyberspace as a global common must be killed and replaced if decisionmakers are to comprehend the future of the medium, which is not a return to unfettered global access. We must clearly admit that cyber activity sails on a mosaic of adjoining territorial seas, not a vast, open ocean. Cyberspace is a nationalizing and militarizing environment of coast guards and forward outposts. This different analogy will assist in creating a mind-set that helps insure that Western democratic infrastructure does not go down with the digital ship.

Modern Maritime Piracy as a Security Challenge

Democracy and Security in Southeastern Europe, 2010

With globalization as a central attribute, post-Cold War international relations are characterized by some completely new forms of security threats. Terrorism is the model, but not the only form. The plurality of piracy-related phenomena that is now seen can jeopardize one society or a number of them. This text is a modest attempt to adequately present a modern security challenge that is relatively new to the wider professional community.

Maritime Hacking: The International and Criminal Law Framework pp 981-987

INT-NAM E-Proceeding, http://int-nam.dho.edu.tr/PROCEEDINGS/e-Proceedings\_INT-NAM2018.pdf, 2018

Abstract Cybersecurity in the maritime realm made headlines in 2017 following the spread of ransomware, a type of computer and network virus, in the systems of major shipping companies and providers. Whilst there is extensive literature on maritime piracy in the traditional sense, i.e., an act of violence or depredation directed against the ship, its cargo or the persons aboard, cyber piracy targeting ships and maritime businesses remains a largely unexplored subject. What more, the law surrounding this phenomenon is marred with uncertainty. The objective of this paper is to identify and comment on key legal texts in the international maritime and criminal law spheres that may be relied on by public law officials in preventing and sanctioning hackers targeting the maritime sector.

Navigating the Maritime Piracy Regime Complex

Global Governance V. 19, 2013

Maritime piracy is one of the oldest subjects of international law and recently it has reemerged as a serious threat to commerce and security. While states have become more engaged in punishing and preventing piracy, efforts as a whole have been poorly organized, ad hoc, mostly unilateral, slow to develop, and only minimally effective. This is true despite the existence of a regime complex that supposedly promotes effective cooperation on the issue. What explains the insufficient response to this rising economic and security threat? This article argues that the regime complex itself is a major part of the problem. It examines specifically four core elemental regimes that are identifiable by their key texts or

Navigating Conflicts in Cyberspace: Legal Lessons from the History of War at Sea

Despite mounting concern about cyber attacks, the United States has been hesitant to embrace retaliatoy gber strikes in its overall defense strategy. Part of the hesitation seems to reflect concerns about limits imposed by the law of armed conflict. But analysts who invoke today's law of armed conflictforget that war on the seas has alwqys followed different rules. The historicpractice of naval war is a much better guide to reasonable tactics and necessay limits for conflict in f'berspace. Cyber conflict should be open-as naval war has been-to hostile measures short of war, to attacks on enemy commerce, to contributionsfrom privateauxiliaries. To keep such measures within safe bounds, we should consider specal legal constraints, analogous to those traditionaly enforced byprize courts.

Security Communities, Alliances and Macrosecuritization: The Practices of Counter-piracy Governance

2012

Within less than a decade piracy has been turned from a marginal economic problem into a global security problem. A surprising array of international actors addresses piracy and coordinates their activities. In this contribution we interrogate this astonishing story of international cooperation. We argue that what we observe here is a global security governance arrangement under construction. We conduct a praxiographic analysis of the current counter-piracy governance arrangement. A praxiographic analysis takes as the main unit of analysis practice, that is, collective patterns of action which entail speech and doings. Based on this evidence we carry out what can be called an “informed speculation” about the future of the arrangement. Based on the notion of macro-securitization we develop three different forms of expectations (or scenarios) of what characterizes the piracy governance arrangement: 1) an interest based “alliance” or “coalition of the willing”; 2) as a forming “security community” of cosmopolitan or regional scale; or as a 3) hybrid “global security assemblage”.

The impact of cybersecurity on the regulatory legal framework for maritime security

Janus.net, 2020

The concepts of maritime safety and maritime security were based, originally, on different aims, objectives, and perspectives. However, currently, most of the international maritime safety conventions have started to cover both aspects. In the analysis of most incidents and accidents at sea, it is quite difficult to delimit safety and security matters and, normally, after a breakdown, it is useless to do it since the planning and response to risks are usually given in an integrated manner. On the other hand, we are witnessing a progressive extension of the concept of maritime safety to include protection (or security) matters simultaneously with the emergence of a new type of threats that are always present from the moment computers are connected to networks anywhere the world: cyber threats! With ships equipped with new advanced technologies, protection against cyber-attacks is more important than ever. These technological advances have become an easy and high-priority target for c...