Offensive Cyber Defense and Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

Cyber Defense is a new Area of Capability within the Armed Forces. Unlike the traditional domains where armed conflicts take place - land, sea and air - Cyberspace has, in addition to its territorial anchorage, an important configuration component that gives it the characteristics of virtuality. It is therefore not exempt from the effects produced in the physical world by an operation initiated in this domain.

In the current state of the art, the protection of Cyberspace is mostly defensive, so it would not require offensive elements for the fulfillment of the objective, however the conceptual and technological evolution is migrating towards proactive and non-reactive systems, driven by disruptive technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI).

In that sense, the dual use - civilian and military - of technologies for cyber protection, would entail the risk of the spread of automated attacks through AI-enabled weapons and possible spillover effects in the physical world, so it is necessary to explore the regulatory aspect of their development and employment.

This article aims to raise questions and concerns about the challenge of the emergence of this new technology and its dual civilian and military use.