Briefing Paper Overview Assignment Solution

Welcome and introduction

Welcome to your new role as Minister for Defense and Minister for Home Affairs. As you would be aware that Australia’s national security and economic prosperity to a great extent depends on how well we are able to protect our information and strategic assets, this briefing paper seeks to explain one of the most eminent threat to the developed countries – i.e. cyber-terrorism and international cyber-warfare. The briefing paper will begin with the advice sought by the Commander, and is followed by a critique of current Australian legislation and international legal framework to combat cyber-terrorism and warfare. The paper analysis whether current treaties and international agreements are efficacious in the face of growing threats, and if not, what measures are required to be adopted by the cabinet.

2.0 Advice to the Commander-in-Chief

We refer to your query in relation to a planned cyber operation intended to be undertaken through a website that would launch a malware attack on a controlled system. The malware is specifically designed to take down the enemy’s crude oil pipeline along the Oblod village. The intended action will have the following consequences:

• Pollute the water supply of villager making it unusable
• Spread the spill several miles across the swampland that will take months to clear up
• Destroy the sanctuary for endangered seabird
• Interrupt the oil supply to enemy’s military vehicles
• Malware may also infect any other computer that accesses the website

It is first important to understand some key facts before we begin to legally appraise the action. With the widespread use of internet and digital age, various terms were coined to describe crimes conducted online. These include prefixes of "e-", "digital"", "electronic", "virtual", "IT" and the most popular terminology "cybercrime" (Clough, 2010). There is no single definition of the term and the meaning keeps on evolving because the scope of technology-enabled crime keeps on changing as a function of technological change and human interaction therewith (Urbas and Choo, 2008). However, as analyzed in an article by US Department of Justice, there is a broad consensus over the classification and forms that are within the scope of cybercrime. This includes:

1. Crimes in which the computer or computer network is the target. e.g. hacking and remote installation of malware (which is a term given to malicious software or a kind of computer virus)
2. Offences which are considered crime perpetrated using computer technology. e.g. child pornography, stalking, copyright infringement and fraud.
3. Crimes where computer or networks are an integral part of committing a crime but may also provide evidence for such crime. e.g. record of messages exchanged between offender and victim right before the criminal activity, retrieved through computer system (US Department of Justice, 1998).

It has also been argued that true cybercrimes are those that are committed against the computers and network of computers themselves. In contrast, cyberterrorism involves motivation on the part of perpetrator to further political, religious, rebellious, or an ideological agenda. Such attacks have the potential to cause considerable harm to the society disrupting power, water, sewerage, other basic utilities, network links, financial services systems, hospital patient services, air traffic control or even emergency services (Clough, 2010). This is often referred to as the essential 'terrorist' component of cyberterrorism. Hence, mere use of computer and technological skills for recruitment, data mining, hacking and propaganda is not cyberterrorism (Denning, 2004).