Cyber Security and International Law

Abstract

In terms of carrying out cyber attacks and cyber warfare, cyber threats represent one of the main challenges for the international and national securities. Nowadays, it is necessary to examine international legal aspects of cyber security. Therefore, the main goal of the paper is to explore issues related to international regulations of cyber operations in order to ensure security of cyber space and avoid cyber threats. Besides, the article elaborates the definition of the term “cyber-attacks” as well as the types of attacks in cyber space. However, it should be mentioned that the use of force is strictly limited in the international law according to the Charter of the United Nations. This Charter was adopted in 1945 when the creation of cyber space was the matter of future rather than considerations of those times. Consequently, the central question of the paper is the following: Could cyber attack be equated to armed attack according to the international law? Answer to this question can provide insights for defining rules of cyber operations in case of cyber attacks.