Legal and Ethical Implications of Information Operations

摘要

Information Operations (I0) is a family of programs and tools that are used to deprive or disrupt an adversary's information and information systems while assuring the continued availability of your own. The technological tools of IO have been developed and implemented so rapidly that the domestic and international laws that should govern their use have not kept pace. Hackers, cyber criminals, terrorist and foreign spies are using tools such as computer network attack while domestic and international laws are insufficient to adequately patrol them. Further, there are ethical issues involved in the use of these IO tools that may not have been adequately debated, at least from a societal standpoint, to mediate possible conflicts with our national values. IO tools will allow the U.S. to engage and disable enemy facilities previously engaged with kinetic weapons, without the physical collateral damage, but with possible significant impact on noncombatants. International agreements such as the Geneva Convention do not specifically address IO and even within the U.S. military the rules of engagement on IO are not clear. This paper will attempt to explore some of these incongruities and provide a perspective on where the U.S. stance could be on our use of IO.