The right to take Countermeasures and their Appropriateness As an option to Respond to Hostile Cyber Attacks
Prof. Yaser Yousef Khalaileh
College of Law – Qatar University
Prof. Mekled Erkhees AlTarawneh
Department of law –Police College -Qatar
Abstract:
For bad or good, technology advancement is reaching a peak that has never been witnessed before. Cyber-Attacks, for instance, have recently been increased via the use of the advanced technology on sovereign states. Therefore, the ultimate question presents itself forcefully on the available means to states to deter such cross-frontier attacks. It is argued here that by only invoking the Right to Self-defense based on Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, although known with no hesitation to be a reflection of customary international legal law, would not encompass the only remedy to this serious problem. This is because reality indicates that there should be a series of counter measures that precedes the resort to Article 51 available for states when needed. These measures are embedded in Article 22 of the Articles on Responsibility of States for internationally wrongful acts under the “Countermeasures in Respect of an Internationally Wrongful act” section.
This paper argues with the necessity of a more utilization of the counter measures as a main tool both legal and politically. Reality shows that it is not always to draw a clear in differentiating between cyber-attacks that otherwise may reach the threshold of a military attack, and hence deserving the full fledge use of Article 51 of self-defense.