This article examines how international law's kinetic-based definitions of "use of force" and "armed attack," mirrored in the U.S. Law of War Manual, fail to account for offensive cyber operations. The author, Jacob L. Azrilyant, notes that while cyber espionage is settled as falling short of an attack and cyber operations causing kinetic effects are settled as a use of force, a grey zone remains between these poles as to when a cyber operation crosses the threshold into a use of force.
Azrilyant proposes expanding the definition of kinetic effect to include cyber operations that require the reinstallation of software in critical infrastructure before it can function again, while maintaining that dormant malware does not constitute a use of force until it is activated.