Cyberterrorism and the protection of critical information infrastructures : A snapshot of the current state of certain regulatory issues

Abstract

Western states fight against terrorism for decades now, however, certain fundamental regulatory questions stay unanswered to this day. Consequently, with the newest form of terrorism, cyberterrorism, arise just as many legal uncertainties as with conventional terrorism. The complicated and incomplete system of international treaties on (cyber-)terrorism only cover certain aspects of the issue, moreover they generally make the individual states responsible for regulating (cyber-)terrorism without defining a common system of basic rules. In this paper the author discusses cyberterrorism from an international and national legal perspective highlighting the specific area of critical information infrastructure protection. Furthermore the paper also takes into consideration cyberterrorism in the light of international humanitarian law.