Author Description

From North Korea's Recent Attacks On Sony To Perpetual News Reports Of Successful Hackings And Criminal Theft, Cyber Conflict Has Emerged As A Major Topic Of Public Concern. Yet Even As Attacks On Military, Civilian, And Commercial Targets Have Escalated, There Is Not Yet A Clear Set Of Ethical Guidelines That Apply To Cyber Warfare. Indeed, Like Terrorism, Cyber Warfare Is Commonly Believed To Be A War Without Rules. Given The Prevalence Cyber Warfare, Developing A Practical Moral Code For This New Form Of Conflict Is More Important Than Ever. In Ethics And Cyber Warfare, Internationally-respected Ethicist George Lucas Delves Into The Confounding Realm Of Cyber Conflict. Comparing State-sponsored Hacktivism To The Transformative Impact Of Irregular Warfare In Conventional Armed Conflict, Lucas Offers A Critique Of Legal Approaches To Governance, And Outlines A New Approach To Ethics And Just War Reasoning. Lucas Draws Upon The Political Philosophies Of Alasdair Macintyre, John Rawls, And Jürgen Habermas To Provide A Framework For Understanding These Newly-emerging Standards For Cyber Conflict, And Ultimately Presents A Professional Code Of Ethics For A New Generation Of Cyber Warriors. Lucas Concludes With A Discussion Of Whether Preemptive Self-defense Efforts - Such As The Massive Government Surveillance Programs Revealed By Edward Snowden - Can Ever Be Justified, Addressing Controversial Topics Such As Privacy, Anonymity, And Public Trust. Well-reasoned And Timely, Ethics And Cyber Warfare Is A Must-read For Anyone With An Interest In Philosophy, Ethics, Or Cybercrime.