Emergency, Exception and New Technologies in International Relations - Essay Example

In it, malicious actions such as usurping, destroying, altering, disabling, or damaging them occur. These are collectively known as “cyber attacks.” Lin asserts that cyber conflict has attained a level where it is a humanitarian issue but it is still not fully addressed by existing interventions such as the Geneva Conventions and the UN Charter. This is because these interventions (instruments) are outdated in that cyberspace is a new technology as compared to their establishment time. As such, cyber conflicts are bound to affect organizations, people, groups, and territories in the near future.

Again, he asserts that the world is yet to experience a serious form of cyber conflict because no stringent countermeasures exist in preventing such (Lin, 2012). The increasing importance of IT, though very beneficial when applied, has dragged along a detrimental side to it. The fact that IT is universal (global) means that what is taught in one continent is the same thing that will be taught in another. As such, creating or attacking IT systems is possible from any point of the earth; adding up to cyber conflict.

Cyber conflict can be caused by two levels of hostilities: technology-based and people-based approaches. Technology-based hostility refers to cyber attack conducted using purely technological tools such as software, programs, or computer hardware. This includes gaining access to restricted systems, interfering with them using a payload, and gaining in one way from doing so. People-based cyber hostility occurs when people are tricked (through scam), bribed, or blackmailed to conduct the attack from inside the target IT systems.

Collectively, these forms of cyber attack/ hostility have led to the emergence of new countermeasures or frameworks. These are intended to protect IT systems from both vulnerabilities emerging from both offensive approaches. Lin presents two policies that can be implemented in preventing or minimizing vulnerability; defense