The Washington Foreign Law Society

presents

Acts of War? Accountability for Cyberattacks in Ukraine

Wednesday, March 9th, 2022
from 12:30 to 1:30 PM EST

– This webinar is jointly organized with the Stimson Center – 

As the international crisis over Ukraine grows, experts are working to gather information about the cyberattacks on Ukraine. The January 2022 attacks used a multi-pronged strategy, crippling over 70 government websites while selectively deploying wiper malware disguised as ransomware. Destructive cyberattacks usually occur around geopolitical fault lines, and the Ukrainian secret service has identified Russia as the attacker. Who is in a position to credibly identify who did it? What are the political consequences of attribution? When do attacks become an act of war? Hostilities in Ukraine have expanded the conversation beyond peacetime cyber norms to the law of armed conflict.

Join us for this newest addition to our series on Cyber Accountability. For earlier events, see: https://www.stimson.org/project/cyber-security/.

Featured Speakers:

-- Liis Vihul, Chief Executive Officer of Cyber Law International

-- Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Adjunct Lecturer at Johns Hopkins SAIS

-- Laurie Blank, Director, Center for International and Comparative Law and Director, International Humanitarian Law Clinic, Emory Law School

The program will be moderated by Bruce McConnell, Stimson Center Board Member and Distinguished Fellow. Michael Teodori, President of the Washington Foreign Law Society, will host the session.

Liis Vihul is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cyber Law International. Previously, she spent 9 years as a senior analyst in the Law and Policy Branch at the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence and today continues her affiliation with the NATO Centre as one of its Ambassadors. She was a member of, or advised, several Estonian delegations at the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts on Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security process in 2014-2021.

Ms. Vihul was the Managing Editor of the “Tallinn Manual 2.0 on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Operations” published in 2017, and is serving as Co-General Editor of the “Tallinn Manual 3.0”. She holds master’s degrees in law from the University of Tartu and in information security from the University of London.

Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade is an adjunct lecturer at Johns Hopkins SAIS and Principal Threat Researcher at SentinelOne, leading research at SentinelLabs. Presently, he offers a course on State-Sponsored Cyber Threat Actors.

Mr. Guerrero-Saade’s expertise has advanced cybersecurity threat intelligence and analysis leading to development of tools to scale cybersecurity and high-risk nation-state investigations, including serving as a Senior Cybersecurity and National Security Advisor to the President of Ecuador (2012-2013). Mr. Guerrero-Saade’s research and leadership of threat intelligence teams, including at Google, Chronicle, and Kaspersky Lab, has focused on creative approaches to describe complex problems in threat intelligence. His prolific speaking and teaching engagements have included lectures at the Carnegie Mellon CyLab, MIT Sloan School of Management, the University of Oxford, King’s College London, and Georgetown University. His work is the subject of two permanent exhibits at the International Spy Museum, including the “Cyber Infinity Room” and “Moonlight Maze.” He advocates for a global approach to threat intelligence research that emphasizes the benefit of hindsight and technological advancement often referred to as ‘Cyber Paleontology’.

Prof. Laurie R. Blank is a Clinical Professor of Law, Director of the Center for International and Comparative Law and Director of the International Humanitarian Law Clinic at Emory University School of Law, where she teaches the law of armed conflict and works directly with students to provide assistance to international tribunals, non-governmental organizations and militaries around the world on cutting edge issues in humanitarian law and human rights. Professor Blank is the co-author of International Law and Armed Conflict: Fundamental Principles and Contemporary Challenges in the Law of War, a casebook on the law of war, and the co-author of Law of War Training: Resources for Military and Civilian Leaders. She is also the co-director of the End of War Project, a multi-year project exploring a range of legal, policy, moral and strategic challenges in ending complex counterterrorism and counterinsurgency conflicts. Professor Blank is a core expert on the Woomera Manual on International Law of Military Space Operations and the Oslo Manual on Selected Problems in the Law of Armed Conflict. In addition, she is a Senior Fellow at the Lieber Institute for Law and Land Warfare, the Chair of the American Society of International Law Lieber Prize Committee, a term member of the American Bar Association’s Advisory Committee to the Standing Committee on Law and National Security and the series editor of the ICRC’s teaching supplements on IHL. She also served as a member of the Homeland Security Academic Advisory Council Subcommittee on Countering Violent Extremism and the Public International Law and Policy Group’s High-Level Working Group on Piracy.

She is the author of numerous articles and opinion pieces on topics in the law of armed conflict, including targeted killing and drone strikes, the classification of armed conflict, implementation of the law of armed conflict during military operations, cyber war, and law and legitimacy in armed conflict. Before coming to Emory, Professor Blank was a Program Officer in the Rule of Law Program at the United States Institute of Peace. At USIP, she directed the Experts’ Working Group on International Humanitarian Law, in particular a multi-year project focusing on New Actors in the Implementation and Enforcement of International Humanitarian Law. Professor Blank received an A.B. in Politics from Princeton University, an M.A. in International Relations from The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at The Johns Hopkins University, and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.

Moderator: Bruce McConnell. Mr. McConnell is a Distinguished Fellow with the Stimson Center and has served on the Stimson Board of Directors since 2021. He has been a leading player on global cyberspace peace and security issues at the intersection of governments, business and civil society for over thirty years. He was the final President and CEO of the EastWest Institute, leading the migration of the institute’s programs, to reduce and mitigate security conflict among nations, to new homes in other nonprofit organizations including the Stimson Center. Prior to becoming President, Mr. McConnell led EWI’s Global Cooperation in Cyberspace program, working with governments and companies to increase the safety, security and stability of life in cyberspace. He co-led the secretariat of the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace.

From 2009 to 2013, Mr. McConnell served at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, where he was Deputy Under Secretary for Cybersecurity. He served on the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team. From 2000-2008, he created, built and sold two consultancies that provided strategic advice to clients in technology, business and government markets. Mr. McConnell serves as a Distinguished Fellow at Observer Research Foundation America and as a member of the advisory committee of the Fuxi Institution (China). He is a business advisor to several technology companies.

Host: Michael Teodori. Mr. Teodori is the President of the Washington Foreign Law Society. He is also a US Policy and Advocacy Specialist at Eni SpA, Italy’s largest energy company. Prior to joining Eni, Mr. Teodori was a Congressional Liaison Officer at the US politics and Congressional affairs office of the Italian Embassy in Washington DC, where he focused on US-Italy relations. Mr. Teodori was also a Schuman trainee at the European Parliament. In that capacity he worked at the European Parliament Liaison Office in Washington, DC, as well as at the European Parliament Legal Service in Brussels. Mr. Teodori holds a law degree from the University of Pavia (Italy) and a joint M.A. in transatlantic affairs from the College of Europe (Bruges) and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University (Medford, MA).