Chapter 1. Assessing the Problem
“You can’t say that civilization don’t advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way.”
Whenever someone asks if anyone ever died in a cyber war, Magomed Yevloev springs to mind.
On August 31, 2008, in the North Caucasus Republic of Ingushetia, Yevloev was arrested by Nazran police, ostensibly for questioning regarding his anti-Kremlin website Ingusheta.ru. As he was being transported to police headquarters, one of the officers in the car “accidentally” discharged his weapon into the head of Magomed Yevloev.
The U.S. Department of State called for an investigation. Vladimir Putin reportedly said that there would be an investigation. To date, nothing has been done.
Ingushetia.ru (now Ingushetia.org) and the Chechen website kavkazcenter.com are some of the earliest examples of politically motivated Russian cyber attacks dating as far back as 2002. In other words, in addition to Russian military operations in Chechnya, there were cyber attacks launched against opposition websites as well.
The Russia Georgia War of August 2008 is the latest example, occurring just a few weeks before Magomed Yevloev’s killing. If anyone would qualify as a casualty of cyber warfare, it might just be this man.
The Complex Domain of Cyberspace
The focus of this book is cyber warfare, and therein lies the first complexity that must be addressed. As of this writing, there is no international agreement on what constitutes ...