North Korea and Cyberwarfare: How North Koreas Cyber Attacks Violate the Laws of War

Abstract

On July 4th, 2009, North Korea launched the first of three DOS(Distributed Denial of Service) attacks upon the government and private networks of both the United States and South Korea, effectively flooding these networks with millions of requests from computers which were infected with the North Korean botnet virus yDoom.Considered by several experts (including Richard A. Clark) as a precursor of things to come, such attacks are quickly becoming an alternative means of waging war on enemy countries. This is especially true for countries such as North Korea, whose struggling economy and limited resources lead it to attack its enemies in a cheaper - albeit effective –way. In this note, Tom Papain will talk about the laws of war and cyberwar, both in general and as they pertain to the 2009 cyber attacks, and the various treaties which North Korea violated by launching these cyber attacks, including the U.N. Charter Article 2(4), the Geneva Convention, Additional Protocol I, Article 48, and the Hague Cultural Property Convention. In the end, he will talk about possible future developments in the

realm of cyberwarfare, including what the International Community should do to combat North Korea use of cyber weapons, and efforts by the U.S. and Russia to come up with a treaty regulating cyberwarfare.