a really interesting story broke today – researchers say they found spyware used in war for the first time, and that spyware, surprising no one, is pegasus. yikes.
I gave a brief comment on espionage under IHL:
In any case, it’s unclear whether using spyware such as Pegasus in the context of an armed conflict constitutes a violation of international law, according to Anna Pagnacco, a cybersecurity policy researcher at Oxford Information Labs.
“International law is silent on the topic of peacetime espionage, which is broadly criminalized at the national level; yet all states still conduct espionage. Intelligence activities carried out by members of a belligerent party’s armed forces in uniform during international armed conflict are legitimate – i.e., spying is not a war crime,” Pagnacco told TechCrunch.
(here’s forbes’ reporting on the same story for some extra context)
I think this warrants more thinking on my part, potentially a paper?
in the meantime, a huge thanks to Lorenzo for having me!
update: yup I’m going to write a paper on this