New Technologies in International Law / Tymofeyeva, Crhák et al.

already taken actions against Ukraine which are part of the hybrid war concept. This observation refers to the events at the beginning of the second decade of the century. 695 The confrontation of contemporary regulations of international law with contem porary methods of action of states involved in armed conflicts will consequently seek to answer the question of how far today’s legal framework reflects current reality. In result, therefore, the reflections carried out are intended to examine the state of con temporary international law. Due to the currency of the issue addressed in the article, the primary source on which the analysis is based is journalism enriched by the perspective of legal acts and state ments of doctrine. Concept of the ‘cybersecurity’ and the ‘hybrid war’ It would be undoubteldy difficult to create and use only one definition of ‘cybersecurity’. 696 Each national system has its own one and there are also a lot of descriptions given by the doctrine of law. For example, the definition used in Polish regulations, that is very close to the author of this paper, sounds: that the ‘cybersecurity’ is ‘the resistance of the information systems to actions that affect the confidentiality, in tegrity, availability and authenticity of the data processed or the related services offered by the systems’. 697 When it comes to the doctrine we can notice that more frequently there are some definitions realted to the concept of ‘the hybrid war’ part of which is the violation of the aforementioned cyber security. For example, Frank Hoffman points out that hybrid war is ‘any adversary that simultaneously employs a tailored mix of conventional weapons, irregular tactics, terrorism, and criminal behavior in the same time and battlespace to obtain their political objectives’. 698 Focusing on the analysis of the concept of hybrid war on doctrinal grounds seems to support the thesis that the concept is a product of legal language and legal science. Rather, cyber war is a technical concept, for which a definition is more easily created on the basis of the legal system. This is because hybrid war is a conglomeration of contem porary methods of fighting a war opponent. The indication of the above definitions is of an orderly nature and its primary function is to provide some perspective from which to view the regulations analysed below. 1. The international standards aimed at ensuring cyber security At the beginning, it has to be underlined that international law does not explicitly regulate hybrid war. It is therefore impossible to list unified and universal mechanisms 695 Hajduk J and Stępniewski T, ‘Russia’s Hybrid War with Ukraine: Determinants, Instruments, Accomplishments and Challenges’ (2016) 2 Studia Europejskie – Studies in European Affairs 37. 696 Worona J, Cyberspace and International Law – Status Quo and Prospects (Białystok, 2017). 697 Art. 2 p. 4 of Polish Act of 5 July 2018 on the national cyber security system. 698 Hoffman F, ‘On Not-So-New Warfare: Political Warfare vs Hybrid Threats’ ( War on the Rocks , 28 July 2014) accessed 21 October 2023.

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