ABSTRACT
This chapter moves beyond anecdotal discussions of threat morphing and analyze the conceptual, empirical and legal factors that combine to erode the efficacy of our current threat response strategies when these strategies are directed at cyber-attacks. The distinction between offensive and defensive warfare still exists, the legitimacy of offensive warfare became problematic after World War II. Since threats are classified and response systems differentiate between internal and external threats, the author have divided this analysis into two parts: The first deals with crime and terrorism, the second with warfare. That state of affairs is, discussed in this chapter, far from unusual. And something similar happens with warfare. The chapter examines three cases: McKinnon; Invita; and Bullitt County. The lack of ambiguity in scenarios and in the many iterations of them that have played out over the last decades is the product of several factors, the most obvious of which is that the threat activity occurs in the physical world.
