Response to attribution --- is a key issue, Bentom. As with the discussion on attribution so too with the discussion on responding to attributed cyber attacks, the jury will be out, since there is no agreed international legal framework to sustain a response taken by one state against another. It is often said that the UN Charter will apply, but as Vlada's introductory video to this module showed, the concept of cyberspace (which is a manmade domain) does not exist in the framework of the Charter. So there is merit in discussing how to integrate the new realities of this century into the Charter, which dates to the world as it existed in 1945. One way for organizing such a discussion is actually given in the Charter itself, in Article 109, which provides for a General Conference of the UN member states to be held to review the provisions of the Charter.

Source author: Asoke Mukerji asokem@diplomacy.edu