Rowe, Neil C.

Cyberwarfare now has the attention of militaries worldwide, giving rise to new and formidable agencies from the U.S Cyberspace Command to China's Blue Army. The attraction is strong; with cyberweapons or computer-based attacks, nations could inflict serious damage to military capabilities, as well as strike physical targets and infrastructure, with more anonymity and without placing their soldiers at risk. In its most recent cuber-policy report (DOD 2011), the U.S. is clearly worried and developing a thoughtful plan to operate in cyberspace. But “ethics” is not a consideration or word that appears even once in the report - perhaps not surprising, given that ethics often lags behind technology as an afterthought, especially war technologies. However, cyberwarfare poses great challenges to just war theory, the basis for international laws of conflict. Our project fills an important need by investigating this tension with the basic principles of war, helping to determine the permissibility and policies of cyberwarfare. In turn, clarity in ethics can better safeguard cyberspace, which is increasingly essential to modern life.
Computer Science
National Science Foundation
NSF
2016