Cyber warfare unregulated, says IDF adviser

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.591665

By Gili Cohen
Haaretz.com
May 20, 2014
Iyyar 20, 5774

Speaking at the CyberNight conference at the Shamoon College of 
Engineering in Be’er Sheva, Maj. A., the Military Intelligence legal 
adviser, described the role of legal consulting in the era of cybernetic 
warfare, saying that “Although the field is not regulated – and because 
the field is not regulated – the legal adviser plays a central role. This 
role is developing on the job, step by step, because there is no 
breakthrough convention or legislation” on the horizon.

The IDF last year appointed a legal adviser for cyber warfare, whose main 
task is to regulate cyber warfare activities, based on principles of 
international law. The military has refused to confirm whether one of this 
adviser’s tasks is to approve targets, as it is for most of its legal 
advisers in operational positions.

Many field commanders have been critical of these legal advisers’ work, 
said Maj. A. “Our ‘customers,’ at least some of them, perceive the jurists 
as interfering, rather than helping,” she said. “It’s no small challenge.”

Maj. A. said that when providing advice “for various operations,” as she 
put it, she often had no choice but to rely on the Law and Administration 
Ordinance of 1948, “which has a clause that is still relevant, which says 
the army is allowed to take any legal step necessary to protect the State 
of Israel. That’s how we operate today."

[...]

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