Brigham Young University Law School BYU Law Digital Commons Faculty Scholarship 12-31-2009 Cyber Warfare and Precautions against the Effects of Attacks Eric Talbot Jensen BYU Law,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/faculty_scholarship Part of the Internet Law Commons, Military, War, and Peace Commons, and the National Security Law Commons Recommended Citation Eric Talbot Jensen, Cyber Warfare and Precautions against the Effects of Attacks, 88 Tᴇx. L. Rᴇᴠ. 1533 (2009). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by BYU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of BYU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Cyber Warfare and Precautions Against the Effects of Attacks Eric Talbot Jensen" Ninety-eight percent of all U.S. government communications travel over civilian-owned-and-operated networks. Additionally, the government relies almost completely on civilian providers for computer software and hardware products, services, and maintenance. This near-complete intermixing of civilian and military computer infrastructuremakes many of those civilian objects and providers legitimate targets under the law of armed conflict. Other civilian networks, services, and communications may suffer collateral damage from legitimate attacks on government targets. To protect those civilian objects and providersfrom the effects of attacks, the law of armed conflict requires a state to segregate its military assets from the civilian population and civilian objects to the maximum extent feasible. Where segregation is not feasible, the government must protect the civilian entities and communicationsfrom the effects of attacks.