The Notion of ‘Objects’ During Cyber Operations: A Riposte in Defence of Interpretive and Applicative Precision

Abstract

International humanitarian law protects civilian objects from attack. It also requires that any collateral damage to them be considered in the proportionality analysis and when considering precautions in attack designed to minimize harm to civilians. This article addresses the question of whether data are objects in the IHL sense. Based on the work underlying the Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare, it argues that although this may be the case in the future, as of 2014 IHL has not developed to this point.

Keywords: cyber, data, object, humanitarian law, law of armed conflict, military objective