Topic: Challenges to internal security through communication networks, role of media and social networking sites in internal security challenges, basics of cyber security; money laundering and its prevention.
6. Recent Mumbai cyber-attacks point to the need to rethink what constitutes a force and what a justified response can be. In this context analyse issues in contextualizing cyber-attack. (250 words)
Reference: The Hindu
Why the question:
Recent Mumbai cyberattacks point to the need to rethink what constitutes a force and what a justified response can be.
Key Demand of the question:
Analyse the issues in contextualizing cyber-attack in detail.
Directive:
Analyze – When asked to analyse, you have to examine methodically the structure or nature of the topic by separating it into component parts and present them as a whole in a summary.
Structure of the answer:
Introduction:
Start with a brief background of cyber-attacks and their impact.
Body:
Discuss the issues in contextualizing cyberattacks; Changing definitions: The definition of combat and combatants undergoes fast mutation and excluded cyber-attacks for E.g. Lieber Code of 1863: Defines a combatant as “So soon as a man is armed by a sovereign and takes the soldier’s oath of fidelity, he is a belligerent.”
The 1899 Hague Convention: Clarity of what constitutes a regular force.
- Force should be commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates.
- It must have a distinctive emblem recognizable at a distance.
- It must carry arms openly.
- It must conduct operations in accordance with laws and customs of war.
Present India’s stand. India has given its view of the right to self-defence In a February 24, 2021, UN Arria Formula meeting on ‘Upholding the collective security system of the UN Charter.
Conclusion:
India seems to have made its intentions clear at the UN meet, but this is a game that two can play; if not regulated globally, it could lead to a wild West situation.