Georg Kerschischnig - Cyberthreats and International Law
| Author | Arno Lodder |
| Position | Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation in the Department of Transnational Legal Studies at VU University in Amsterdam |
| Pages | 106-108 |
Georg Kerschischnig
Cyberthreats and International Law
Eleven International Publishing (2012) ISBN-13: 978-9490947644
Arno R Lodder*
I. Introduction
We all experience daily the benets the internet brings us, but in cyberspace, as in life, along with the good comes the bad.
Some users are insulted on social media, others are swindled in online marketplaces, and spam, viruses and worms exist in
large numbers. e latter are commonly headed under the term ‘threats’, and where the internet is used as the medium, they
are labelled ‘cyberthreats’.
Both the internet’s infrastructure and applications have vulnerabilities as it was not developed to be secure. Ironically, what
began as a military network did not contain any security measures—they were not needed back then, because the internet
was meant to serve as a closed system. is historical background must be kept in mind when discussing cyberthreats, which
are inherent features of the internet.
One of the infrastructural inconveniences of threats is the identication of internet users. While surng the web, individuals
cannot be identied; only the computers used which are part of the network can. Basically, in locating the source of these
threats it might be clear which computers were used, but not who used these computers. In addition, there are many ways to
hide one’s identity or to mislead those who want to identify computers or their users. Attribution is the term used for linking
acts on the internet to individuals, and the term mostly arises in the context of the problem of attribution.
reats are a good starting point to address insecurity in cyberspace. From a legal point of view, however, it is often dicult
to determine the appropriate response to threats and who should exercise this response. e legal system is not very t for
this task. Namely, certain legal actors respond to the acts of certain individuals and, as was just indicated, it is usually not
clear who is acting. For instance, if the threat comes from a criminal, the police and prosecutor are typically called on to
act whereas if the threat comes from another country, the army may be called into action. But what if it is not clear who is
behind the threat? Who should react then? is problem asks for a dierent approach. e existing legal framework should
be disregarded and states should form response teams with competences that are currently spread out among the various
governmental parties, such as the police, the army and the secret service.
* Arno R Lodder is a Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation in the Department of Transnational Legal Studies at VU University in Amsterdam.
Merkourios 2013 – Volume 29/Issue 76, Book Review, pp. 106-108.
URN:NBN:NL:UI:10-1-112867
ISSN: 0927-460X
URL: www.merkourios.org
Publisher: Igitur publishing
Copyright: this work has been licensed by the Creative Commons Attribution License (3.0)
Book Review
Merkourios - International and European Law: General Issue 2013 - Vol. 29/76 106
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