Cyber-attacks and the Violation of non-intervention Principle

The technological progress has caused the states to deal with the ever-growing cyber-attacks. The most cyber-attacks that states usually face are Distributed Denial of Service Attacks. Since these attacks do not have any direct and immediate harms, they cannot be considered as use of force or armed attacks therefore states usually ignore to trace and identify the attackers. Since there are no explicit and direct rules for addressing cyber-attacks, in accordance with the regulations of current International Law, we come to the conclusion that some of these non-destructive cyber-attacks which are coercive can be counted as violation of the principle of non-intervention if those attacks are attributable to the states and consequently the international responsibility of those states can be brought up in competent international courts. In this essay the author endeavors to demonstrate not only the severe cyber-attacks violate the International Law obligations but also the non-destructive ones such as Distributed Denial of Service Attacks can breach International Law too.