After completing introductions and administrative formalities, discussion in Roundtable 1 turned towards evaluating Ethan Zuckerman’s address and determining the role that social media plays in international politics. It was decided that nation states have the ability to influence political fervor through manipulation or outright denial of social media outlets. Examples of such behavior have been witnessed during the revolutions in Egypt, Iran, and Tunisia. From this point the conversation began to transition to debate the extent to which nation states were able to utilize control of the cyber-realm as a projection of power in the global community.
In accordance with the topic of the Roundtable, the delegates actively discussed recent examples of cyber-warfare attacks such as the denial of service attacks against Georgia, the hacking of Estonia’s national banking system, and the use of the Stuxnet virus against Iranian nuclear facilities. Hypothetical situations for future attacks were proposed, and the ramifications of such attacks were discussed. After some debate, it was agreed upon that cyber warfare and cyber espionage/crime were independent terms with their own unique parameters. As such, discussion of cyber warfare must be constrained to attacks which target the infrastructure of a nation state, as opposed to user to user attacks, and data theft. This conclusion was fundamental in opening the floor for the discussion of the ethics of cyber warfare, which the Roundtable will further address in upcoming sessions.
Overall, Roundtable 1 accomplished much during the first day, and successfully laid the groundwork for further discussion on the role of cyber warfare in great power politics. Expect future updates to tackle issues such as proportionality of response to cyber attack, the sovereignty of nation states in the cyber realm, and the establishment of a unified code of ethics for cyber warfare.
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