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18 SMU Sci. & Tech. L. Rev. 405 (2015)
Designation of North Korea as a State Sponsor of CyberTerrorism, On

handle is hein.journals/comlrtj18 and id is 425 raw text is: On Designation of North Korea as a State Sponsor of CyberTerrorism Justin L. Koplow* I. INTRODUCTION There are ample reasons to be wary of labeling an event an act of cyberterrorism. For too long the term has been employed as both a dodge and a hustle; the former by those who minimize the importance of investing in cybersecurity until confronted with a cyber 9/11 and the latter by those fear-mongering beyond all reasonable limits to obtain enormous sums of se- curity dollars., While clearly one must watch his wallet either way when cyberterrorism is invoked, what is less clear is the meaning of the term, itself. Indeed, although coined some thirty years ago, cyberterrorism has many definitions, which means it really has no single accepted definition. The basics seem clear enough-use of computer networks to perpetrate harm and incite terror-but the devil is in the details. Must the attackers have an ideological motivation? Must non-state actors commit the act? Must the tar- get of the harm be a civilian population? Most fundamentally, what consti- tutes terror in an artificial world? And so, cyberterrorism sputters along, loved, feared, and misunder- stood. However, as will be explored later in this article, several recent inci- dents suggest a developing and growing trend of what seem to be ideologically motivated cyberattacks, intended to change the behavior of the attack targets or society and, in some cases, cause serious damage in the process. The 2014 hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment (Sony) is the most noto- rious example of this trend. From that attack, gallons of digital ink were spilled and consequences both serious and hilarious abounded. We learned that Channing Tatum sends emails IN ALL CAPS; at least one executive lost her job; viewing a terrible movie briefly became a defiant political act; reams of employee health information were made public, forming the basis of class action litigation; and sanctions were imposed upon North Korean entities via * The author is an attorney with AT&T in Dallas, Texas. He worked previously for the U.S. Intelligence Community; however, the views expressed in this arti- cle are those of the author, alone, and do not reflect the opinions or policies of either AT&T or the U.S. Government. This article adapts and expands upon a presentation the author gave to the Cyber-Security Symposium hosted at South- ern Methodist Law School on October 23, 2015. 1. Compare Thomas Rid, Cyber War Will Not Take Place, 35 J. OF STRATEGIC STUD. 5, 5 (2012) (arguing that it is unlikely that cyber war will occur in the future), with RICHARD CLARKE & ROBERT K. KNAKE, CYBER WAR: THE NEXT THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT 103 (2010) (Clarke speculates that a cyberattack could disable trains ... blow up pipe- lines . . . cause blackouts and damage electrical power grids . . . wipe out and confuse financial records ... disrupt traffic in urban areas .. .wipe out medical records . . .).

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