From North Korea's recent attacks on Sony to perpetual news reports of successful hackings and criminal theft, cyber conflict has emerged as a major topic of public concern. Yet even as attacks on military, civilian, and commercial targets have escalated, there is not yet a clear set of ethical guidelines that apply to cyber warfare. Indeed, like terrorism, cyber warfare is commonly believed to be a war without rules. Given the prevalence of cyber warfare, developing a practical moral code for this new form of conflict is more important than ever. In Ethics and Cyber Warfare, internationally-respected ethicist George Lucas delves into the confounding realm of cyber conflict. Comparing "state-sponsored hacktivism" to the transformative impact of "irregular warfare" in conventional armed conflict, Lucas offers a critique of legal approaches to governance, and outlines a new approach to ethics and "just war" reasoning. Lucas draws upon the political philosophies of Alasdair MacIntyre, John Rawls, and Jürgen Habermas to provide a framework for understanding these newly-emerging standards for cyber conflict, and ultimately presents a professional code of ethics for a new generation of "cyber warriors." Lucas concludes with a discussion of whether preemptive self-defense efforts - such as the massive government surveillance programs revealed by Edward Snowden - can ever be justified, addressing controversial topics such as privacy, anonymity, and public trust. Well-reasoned and timely, Ethics and Cyber Warfare is a must-read for anyone with an interest in cybercrime or cyberwar. -- Book jacket.

Includes maps of: National Security Agency's Treasure Map Depiction of 2012 Cyberattacks on US Financial Institutions.

Introduction: Crime or warfare? -- Cyber (in)security: threat assessment in the cyber domain : What, when, and where? ; How? ; Why? ; Three ways of being a hacktivist ; Conventional warfare ; Unrestricted warfare ; State-sponsored hacktivism as a new form of warfare -- Is there a role for ethics or law in cyber conflict? : Irregular war and cyberwar ; Ethics and "folk morality" ; Ethics and the law ; Ethics and just war theory ; Strategic plan of the book ; Applying moral theories in the cyber domain -- The Tallinn Manual: international law in the aftermath of Estonia : International law applicable to Stuxnet ; International law and state-sponsored hacktivism ; The Tallinn Manual ; International law and the Estonian cyber attacks ; "There ought to be a law!" ; Why the Tallinn Manual failed -- Genuine ethics versus "folk morality" in cyberspace : The advantages of taking the "moral point of view" ; The challenge of folk morality for authentic ethics ; The origins of universal moral norms ; Thinking ethically about conflict in the cyber domain ; Just war theory as part of a "morality of exceptions" ; Jus in Bello and professional military ethics ; Jus in Silico: ethics and just war theory in the cyber domain -- If Aristotle waged cyberwar: how norms emerge from practice : Distinguishing between laws and norms ; The methodology of uncertainty: how do norms "emerge"? ; Do emergent moral norms provide effective governance? -- Privacy, anonymity, and the rise of state-sponsored hacktivism : Emergent norms and the rise of state-sponsored hacktivism ; The cunning of history ; Permissible preventive cyber self-defense ; Privacy, anonymity, and the sectors of vulnerability ; Cyber security measures for individuals ; Privacy versus anonymity ; A limited justification for anonymity ; Restricting anonymity while preserving privacy ; New "rules of the road" for cyber navigation -- NSA management directive #424: anticipatory national self-defense : Preventive war ; Initial public response ; The dilemma of Edward Snowden ; Government deception and public trust ; Defending national boundaries and personal liberties ; State norms for respecting sovereignty and attaining security -- Conclusion: Toward a "code of ethics" for cyber warriors.