The eight rules include bans on attacks on hospitals, hacking tools that spread uncontrollably and threats that engender terror among civilians.
Based on international humanitarian law, the rules are:
- Do not direct cyber-attacks against civilian objects
- Do not use malware or other tools or techniques that spread automatically and damage military objectives and civilian objects indiscriminately
- When planning a cyber-attack against a military objective, do everything feasible to avoid or minimise the effects your operation may have on civilians
- Do not conduct any cyber-operation against medical and humanitarian facilities
- Do not conduct any cyber-attack against objects indispensable to the survival of the population or that can release dangerous forces
- Do not make threats of violence to spread terror among the civilian population
- Do not incite violations of international humanitarian law
- Comply with these rules even if the enemy does not
IT Army of Ukraine vs Killnet
Killnet, which has 90,000+ supporters on its Telegram channel. KillNet is a Russia-aligned hacktivist group that gained notoriety during the first month of the Russian-Ukraine conflict when they began a widespread—although relatively unsophisticated—campaign of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks
IT Army of Ukraine – a volunteer hacking network with a Telegram group nearly 200,000-strong. The Ukraine IT Army stands as a formidable force in the digital realm, actively countering cyber threats amid the ongoing conflict with Russia. As highlighted in the Wired article, the Ukraine IT Army is not just a group; it’s a dedicated community of tech experts united by a common goal. Their efforts go beyond traditional borders, with a mission to safeguard the nation’s cyber frontiers from various cyberattacks, including DDoS assaults and other malicious activities orchestrated by hostile entities.https://www.wired.co.uk/article/ukraine-it-army-russia-war-cyberattacks-ddos
Summary
The Geneva Convention, rules aimed to limit the savagery of physical wars, prohibit such attacks on civilians. But there’s no Geneva Convention for cyber warfare. The International Committee of the Red Cross argues that existing codes should apply – so targeting hospitals, for example, would constitute a breach.