The Cyber in Crime and Warfare: Two Birds of A Feather?

• In Event: Cybercrime Working Group - Theories, ethics and reflections

Abstract

Throughout history, the territory of war and crime has been mostly clearly distinguished from one another. Even so that the security architectures of the Western world are built on this distinction between external and internal security. In essence, whereas external security is to be provided by the armed forces and their (military) intelligence services, internal security is the field of the police and (civilian) intelligence. However, this distinction is less clear on the most novel battleground, namely cyberspace, as nation-states have been observed to operate next to and even deploy cyber criminals. A ransomware attack by a cybercrime group on a port could be an ideal outsourced cover-up for a strategic attack by a nation-state. These sorts of cyber mercenary activities are highly useful in the hybrid warfare strategy of the new wars of the 21st century, as it blurs the lines between cybercrime and cyberwarfare. Some could even argue that the common denominator cyber catalyzed the weaponization of cybercrime in cyber warfare. At the very least, there can be stated that our contemporary knowledge on our pillarized security concepts is challenged in cyberspace. An operational distinction between the internal and external dimensions is necessary in order to gain insights into the possible governance of cyberspace. To date, such a distinction has not thoroughly been made yet. This results in the lack of a conceptual model or lens to analyze and distinguish both phenomena and hence the governance required. This paper will be a first step in bridging this gap by developing an analytical framework to distinguish cybercrime from cyber warfare through an extensive literature review in the field. As such, it provides the fundaments for further research on the cybercrime-cyberwarfare nexus, in particular to help explain activities committed by cyber mercenaries, and the realm of the governance applicable.

Authors

• Celien De Stercke, Ghent University

• Jelle Janssens, Ghent University