Rethinking the Prohibition on the Use of Force in the Light of Economic Cyber Warfare: Towards a Broader Scope of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter

This article argues that Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, which prohibits the threat or use of force, should be interpreted to cover economic cyber-attacks, not only those causing physical or kinetic harm. The author, Ido Kilovaty, contends that the traditional distinction between kinetic and non-kinetic effects is outdated given that severe economic cyber-attacks can inflict harm comparable to physical attacks. He proposes a framework of factors for assessing when an economic cyber-attack rises to the level of a use of force, arguing that sufficiently grave economic cyber-attacks should be capable of triggering a state's right of self-defense and the UN Security Council's authority under Chapter VII. Kilovaty illustrates the stakes with the 2013 Associated Press Twitter hack, in which a false report of explosions at the White House briefly caused a sharp drop in the Dow Jones index.