List of articles

This page serves as the equivalent of a table of contents in a printed book. It contains an updated list of all substantive articles in the Toolkit.

1 About the project

• Main page
• FAQ
• Note on the structure of articles
• Glossary
• Short form citation
• Bibliography
• People

2 Scenarios

• Scenario 01: Election interference
• Scenario 02: Political espionage
• Scenario 03: Power grid
• Scenario 04: International organizations
• Scenario 05: Criminal investigation
• Scenario 06: Enabling State
• Scenario 07: Hacking tools
• Scenario 08: Certificate authority
• Scenario 09: Economic espionage
• Scenario 10: Cyber weapons
• Scenario 11: Surveillance tools
• Scenario 12: Computer data
• Scenario 13: Armed conflict
• Scenario 14: Ransomware campaign
• Scenario 15: Cyber deception
• Scenario 16: High seas
• Scenario 17: Collective responses
• Scenario 18: Cyber operators
• Scenario 19: Hate speech
• Scenario 20: Medical facilities
• Scenario 21: Misattribution
• Scenario 22: Methods of warfare
• Scenario 23: Vaccine research
• Scenario 24: Internet blockage
• Scenario 25: Humanitarian assistance

3 Legal concepts

3.1 General international law

• Applicability of international law
• Jurisdiction
• State responsibility
  • Attribution
    • State organs
    • Non-State actors
    • Evidence
    • Responsibility of a State for the conduct of another State
    • Mistake of fact
  • Breach of an international obligation
  • Responses and justifications
    • Circumstances precluding wrongfulness
      • Consent
      • Self-defence (state responsibility)
      • Countermeasures
      • Force majeure
      • Distress
      • Plea of necessity
    • Retorsion
      • Targeted restrictive measures
• Due diligence
• Sovereignty
• Prohibition of intervention
• Prohibition of genocide
• Transboundary harm
• Voluntary, non-binding norms of responsible state behavior
• Cyber operations not per se regulated by international law
  • Peacetime cyber espionage

3.2 Specialised regimes of peacetime international law

• Diplomatic and consular law
• Law of the sea
  • Flag State jurisdiction
  • Freedom of navigation
  • Sovereign immunity
  • Maritime law enforcement
• Air law
• Space law
• International telecommunication law
• International human rights law
• International criminal law
  • Crime of genocide
  • Crimes against humanity
  • War crimes

3.3 Use of force, conflict and international law

• Peaceful settlement of disputes
• International law on the use of force (jus ad bellum)
  • Use of force
  • Armed attack and self-defence
• International humanitarian law (jus in bello)
  • Conflict qualification
    • International armed conflict
    • Non-international armed conflict
  • Conduct of hostilities
    • Military objectives
      • Data as a military objective
    • The notion of ‘attack’ under international humanitarian law
    • Combatancy
      • Direct participation in hostilities
    • Attacks against persons
    • Means and methods of cyber warfare
      • Perfidy and ruses of war
      • Misuse of established indicators
      • Legal review of cyber weapons
  • Specially protected persons, objects, and activities
    • Protection of medical units during armed conflict
    • Humanitarian relief operations
  • Occupation
  • Neutrality

4 Real-world examples

• 2021
  • Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack (2021)
  • Ireland’s Health Service Executive ransomware attack (2021)
  • Kaseya VSA ransomware attack (2021)
  • Microsoft Exchange Server data breach (2021)
  • Pegasus Project revelations (2021)
• 2020
  • African Union headquarters hack (2020)
  • Brno University Hospital ransomware attack (2020)
  • Google shutting down an active counterterrorism operation (2020)
  • SolarWinds (2020)
  • Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine data modification and leak (2020)
• 2019
  • Cyber interference against vessels in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman (2019)
  • Iranian internet blackout (2019)
  • Israeli attack against Hamas cyber headquarters in Gaza (2019)
  • Russia's sovereign internet (2019 onward)
  • Springhill Medical Center ransomware attack (2019)
  • Texas Municipality ransomware attack (2019)
• 2018
  • African Union headquarters hack (2018)
  • Olympic Destroyer (2018)
  • SamSam ransomware incidents (2018)
• 2017
  • Ethiopian surveillance of journalists abroad (2017)
  • French presidential election leak (2017)
  • Hate speech in India (since 2017)
  • Operation Cloudhopper (2017)
  • NotPetya (2017)
  • Triton (2017)
  • WannaCry (2017)
  • Wu Yingzhuo, Dong Hao and Xia Lei indictment (2017)
• 2016
  • DNC email leak (2016)
  • Industroyer – Crash Override (2016)
  • Operation Glowing Symphony (2016)
  • The Shadow Brokers publishing the NSA vulnerabilities (2016)
• 2015
  • Bundestag Hack (2015)
  • Office of Personnel Management data breach (2015)
  • Power grid cyberattack in Ukraine (2015)
  • The Hacking Team Hack (2015)
• 2014
  • Chinese PLA Unit 61398 indictments (2014)
  • Sony Pictures Entertainment attack (2014)
  • Steel mill in Germany (2014)
  • Ukrainian parliamentary election interference (2014)
• 2012
  • Shamoon (2012)
• 2011
  • Caucasus internet outage (2011)
  • Syria’s ‘social media war’ (since 2011)
  • DigiNotar (2011)
• 2010
  • Hate speech in Myanmar (since early 2010s)
  • Stuxnet (2010)
  • SuperMicro supply chain breach (since 2010)
• 2008
  • Georgia-Russia conflict (2008)
  • Bangladesh internet outage (2008)
• 2007
  • Cyber attacks against Estonia (2007)
  • Operation Orchard/Outside the Box (2007)

5 National positions

• Australia (2020)
• Brazil (2021)
• China (2021)
• Czech Republic (2020)
• Estonia (2019 and 2021)
• Finland (2020)
• France (2019)
• Germany (2021)
• Iran (2020)
• Israel (2020)
• Italy (2021)
• Japan (2021)
• Kazakhstan (2021)
• Kenya (2021)
• Netherlands (2019)
• New Zealand (2020)
• Norway (2021)
• Romania (2021)
• Russia (2021)
• Singapore (2021)
• Switzerland (2021)
• United Kingdom (2018 and 2021)
• United States (2012, 2016, 2020 and 2021)

6 Keywords

2007  2008  2010  2011  2012  2014  2015  2016  2017  2018  2019  2020  2021  Advanced persistent threat  Applicability of international law  Article 36  Attack (international humanitarian law)  Attacks against persons  Attribution  Combatancy  Computer data  Conduct of hostilities  Countermeasures  Crime of genocide  Crimes against humanity  Critical infrastructure  Cyber weapons  Cybercrime  DDoS  Deception  Defacement  Diplomatic and consular law  Direct participation in hostilities  Distinction  Due diligence  Economic cyber espionage  Effective control  Election interference  Evidence  Example  Flag State jurisdiction  Freedom of navigation  Hospitals  Humanitarian assistance  Hybrid threats  Indiscriminate attack  Individual criminal responsibility under international law  Industrial control system  International armed conflict  International cooperation  International human rights law  International humanitarian law  International organization  International sanctions  International telecommunication law  Internationalization  Internet access  Inviolability  Law of the sea  Legal concepts  Legal personality  Legal review of cyber weapons  Malware  Maritime law enforcement  Means and methods of cyber warfare  Medical units  Methods and means of warfare  Military objectives  Misattribution  Mistake of fact  Misuse of established indicators  National position  Neutrality  Non-State actors  Non-international armed conflict  Object  Overall control  Peaceful settlement of disputes  Peacetime cyber espionage  Perfidy and ruses of war  Persona non grata  Plea of necessity  Premises of the mission  Prohibition of genocide  Prohibition of intervention  Ransomware  Retorsion  Scenario  Self-defence  Sovereign immunity  Sovereignty  Specially protected persons, objects and activities  State organs  State responsibility  Stuxnet  Supply chain  Surveillance  Targeted restrictive measures  Targeting  Threats  Transboundary harm  Use of force  Voluntary norms  War crimes  Weapons review