Legal Aspects of Cybersecurity Artur Appazov

Asymmetry
. Small participants of the internet communication have more capacity 
to exercise hard and soft power in cyberspace than in many more traditional 
domains.
13
Launching a massive cyberattack does not require a large number of 
people. A single individual with the access to the internet is capable of such an 
attack due to the possibilities of the network and information technologies. 
Consequently, a one-to-one scale of commission is not a viable default assumption.
14
These features seem to be ‘incompatible’ with the real world jurisdictional fragmentation. 
Given these challenges that these features introduce, the main question therefore is how to 
ensure effective monitoring and regulation of user behavior in the integrated global 
information network in the presence of the current disintegrated legal framework 
described by a large number of sovereign jurisdictions. 
Due to the fact that cyber networks present a unique borderless ‘space,’ it becomes a 
lateral, fluid and indivisible single system.
15
As such, physical analogies of space (as our 
conceptual referent to describe the unfamiliar) are inapposite because cyberspace is not in 
itself a place; it is an activity, a complex type of mediated communication. In other words, it 
11
C
LOUGH
, Principles of Cybercrime 7. 2010. 
12
Id. at, 6-7. 
13
Jan-Frederik Kremer & Benedikt Müller, Cyberspace and International Relations: Theory, Prospects and 
Challenges 45 (Springer 2014). 
14
C
LOUGH
, Principles of Cybercrime 5. 2010; Brenner, B
OSTON 
U
NIVERSITY 
J
OURNAL OF 
S
CIENCE 
&
T
ECHNOLOGY 
L
AW
, 
24 - WesLaw paging - (2004). 
15
Brian Nichiporuk & Carl H. Builder, 
Societal Implications
, 
in 
I
N 
A
THENA
'
S 
C
AMP
:
P
REPARING FOR 
C
ONFLICT IN THE 
I
NFORMATION 
A
GE
(John Arquilla & David Ronfeldt eds., 1997). 

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9 
is an intricate, multilayered communicative process that is sustained by a series of 
increasingly complicated technologies.
16
The asymmetry is displacing hierarchies in every sector of society because hierarchical 
organization is not an effective means of organizing technologically-mediated activities.
17
Decentralized architecture of the cyberspace equally decentralizes power and authority 
hierarchy thereby empowering individuals.
18
Due to anonymity, cyberspace has the 
capacity to create a climate in which the bonds of social conformity are eased, if not 
eradicated, which further raises the probability of misuse and deviation.
19
The 
homogeneity of the software used worldwide and decentralized architecture of the 
internet makes it possible for an individual with a computer linked to the internet to create 
results for which in real world significant kinetic resources would be necessary.
20
As the 
information technology permeates all spheres of life, a basic cyberattack is in a way an 
underlying offence that can be used for the purposes of crime, war or terrorism. 
These concerns should play an important role in the ongoing development of information 
and network technology. Enhancing cybersecurity and protecting critical information 
infrastructures are essential to each nation’s security and economic well-being. Legal 
regulation of conduct in cyberspace and deterrence of misuse of ICTs must become an 
integral component of a national cybersecurity and critical information infrastructure 
protection strategy.