Cyber warfare and international law

Abstract

The methods and means of wars have evolved over recent years until they reach cyber warfare, which constituted an advanced example in modern technological development. cyber warfare is one of the serious threats facing countries in the era of technical development, in which they have exerted all their technological capabilities and energies by developing multiple types of electronic weapons, which in turn posed a threat to international security and in light of the modernity of this new type of weapon that may have serious negative effects against humanity, to the extent that it became necessary to examine the extent to which they comply with the norms and rules of international humanitarian law, especially in the absence of international conventions that restrict or prohibit their use. Wars were transferred from battlefields and kinetic weapons to cyberspace, which has become difficult to have a conflict between two countries without having electronic dimensions and aspects. Although there are initiatives by countries to protect their cyber security and their quest to apply IHL to electronic disputes, in addition to national efforts to confront the threat of these attacks, the matter still needs the existence of binding international rules and organizational principles regulating war operations in cyberspace and restricting the freedom of states In developing new electronic weapons methods, which make them threaten the security of states and their civilian peoples, and this can be achieved with the cooperation and solidarity of states with all their different civilizations.