Data as an object in IHL - Simon McKenzie

Send us a text

In this episode, Dr Eve Massingham talks with Dr Simon McKenzie to talk about how some of the fundamental categories of IHL are challenged by cyber operations. In particular, the concepts of ‘objects’ and ‘attacks’, with their apparent focus on physicality, are hard to fit with the intangible elements of cyberspace. They explore this issue by considering whether ‘data’ can be thought of as an object for the purposes of IHL, and why is important.

Simon McKenzie is a Research Fellow at the University of Queensland School of Law. Simon's current research focuses on the legal challenges connected with the defence and security applications of science and technology, with a particular focus on the impact of autonomous systems. His broader research and teaching interests include the law of armed conflict, international criminal law, and domestic criminal law.

Further reading:

• Simon McKenzie, 'Cyber Operations against Civilian Data: Revisiting War Crimes against Protected Objects and Property in the Rome Statute' (2021) Journal of International Criminal Justice
• Jennifer Daskal, ‘The Un-Territoriality of Data’ (2015) 125 Yale Law Journal 326 
• Michael Schmitt (ed.), Tallinn Manual 2.0 on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Operations (2nd edn., Cambridge University Press, 2017) 
• L. Gisel, T. Rodenhäuser and K. Dörmann, ‘Twenty Years on: International Humanitarian Law and the Protection of Civilians against the Effects of Cyber Operations during Armed Conflict’, September 2020 International Review of the Red Cross 
• Michael Schmitt, ‘Wired Warfare 3.0: Protecting the Civilian Population during Cyber Operations’, 101 International Review of the Red Cross (2019) 333 
• Kubo Mačák, ‘Military Objectives 2.0: The Case for Interpreting Computer Data as Objects under International Humanitarian Law’, 48 Israel Law Review (2015) 55 
• H.A. Harrison Dinniss, ‘The Nature of Objects: Targeting Networks and the Challenge of Defining Cyber Military Objectives’, 48 Israel Law Review (2015) 39