Gurney F. Pearsall III, Keyboard Warriors: How the Law of Armed Conflict Must Define the Difference Between Cyberwarfare and Cybercrime, 42 Wis. Int'l L.J. 515 (2025).
This Article explores cybercrime, cyberwarfare, and how international law can better define and regulate these evolving digital threats. Cyberspace has rapidly become a critical domain for states and their citizens, so rapidly that the rules and norms of international law have not caught up. As a result, international law is unable distinguish between cybercrimes that justify police actions and acts of cyberwarfare that justify military action.
To close that dangerous, destabilizing gap in the law, this Article proposes a new approach. This Article argues that because cyberattacks and electromagnetic attacks share the same fundamental characteristics and often have indistinguishable battlefield effects, both tactically and strategically, they should, therefore, share the same international law framework.
