A new handbook created for NATO has set out 95 black-letter rules of cyber warfare that, among other recommendations, states that governments should refrain from launching attacks on civilians, hospitals, nuclear power stations, dams and dykes. The handbook, which defines a cyber-attack as one that is “reasonably expected to cause injury or death to persons or damage or destruction to objects,” warns against all attacks on critical infrastructure, “even when [the targets] are military objectives,” due to the potential for widespread loss of life. The manual’s main concern is that cyber-actions do have the potential to escalate into full-scale wars. It reads, “cyber operations alone might have the potential to cross the threshold of international armed conflict.” In light of that, civilian hacktivists are therefore legitimate targets in cyber-war. “While to date, no international armed conflict has been publicly characterized as having been solely precipitated in cyberspace,” the g...