Analyses of cyber warfare during the past decade have ranged from outright denial that “there even could be such a thing” as cyber warfare, all the way to apocalyptic predictions of an inevitable looming “cyber Armageddon.” Such wildly divergent interpretations of essentially the same data reveal what this author terms an “epistemological crisis,” which can only be rectified by constructing a comprehensive narrative of cyber conflict which incorporates all these rival interpretations of the threats posed in cyberspace into a single coherent conceptual framework. In contrast to software weapons ... More

Analyses of cyber warfare during the past decade have ranged from outright denial that “there even could be such a thing” as cyber warfare, all the way to apocalyptic predictions of an inevitable looming “cyber Armageddon.” Such wildly divergent interpretations of essentially the same data reveal what this author terms an “epistemological crisis,” which can only be rectified by constructing a comprehensive narrative of cyber conflict which incorporates all these rival interpretations of the threats posed in cyberspace into a single coherent conceptual framework. In contrast to software weapons (such as Stuxnet) that produce physical effects equivalent to conventional armed force, this book traces the evolution of interstate conflict among governments lacking the infrastructure and resources to develop such complex weapons instead toward a range of tactics in the cyber domain designed to produce political effects fully equivalent to those achieved through conventional war, by deliberately blurring longstanding distinctions between conventional crime, industrial and military espionage, and conventional warfare. The author identifies this evolution in contemporary warfare as “state-sponsored hacktivism.” Lucas draws on the moral philosophy of John Rawls, Jurgen Habermas, and Alasdair MacIntyre to develop the revolutionary new accounts of just war theory, international law, and “emergent norms” of responsible state behavior required to address the problem of governance within this new domain of unrestricted warfare, in which states are increasingly emulating the behavior of individual anarchists or criminals. This first book-length analysis of ethics and cyber warfare blends technological mastery and philosophical sophistication within a summary that promises to revolutionize our understanding of the challenges and prospects for both conflict and cooperation in the cyber domain.