{"id":98799,"date":"2026-07-07T08:29:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T08:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/98799\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T08:29:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T08:29:14","slug":"civilian-hackers-new-warriors-of-the-digital-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/98799\/","title":{"rendered":"Civilian Hackers: New Warriors of the Digital Age"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Illustration: Helen James \/ SWI swissinfo.ch <\/p>\n

Civilians are conducting cyber operations in armed conflicts\u00a0around the globe. In doing so, they expose themselves to being attacked\u00a0and can endanger\u00a0other\u00a0civilians.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

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July 7, 2026 – 09:00\n<\/p>\n

\n Annegret Mathari has been reporting on International Geneva for more than two decades. For swissinfo she covers the UN and other Geneva-based international organisations. She writes on international diplomatic negotiations, human rights issues, humanitarian aid, armed conflicts, health and the environment. <\/p>\n

For centuries, civilians have\u00a0been part of hostilities during wars.\u00a0For\u00a0example,\u00a0during the\u00a0Second\u00a0World\u00a0War,\u00a0British volunteers phoned in early warning of air raids.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, these actors are primarily hackers. Civilian hackers have\u00a0increasingly\u00a0been or are active in armed conflicts in Ukraine, Syria, Armenia and Azerbaijan,\u00a0India\u00a0and Pakistan, as well as between Israel and Iran and between Israel and Hamas. In a modern battlefield, anyone with a smartphone is a potential source of military information\u00a0that can collect and send data in seconds.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

With strategies that aim to\u00a0mobilise\u00a0\u201cthe whole of society\u201d to defend a country, civilian involvement in warfare could become increasingly direct and far-reaching, warn the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights in a joint report.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

This raises many questions and creates its own set of problems. Not only are\u00a0civilians exposing\u00a0themselves to danger, but their involvement in conflicts raises the question of whether they classify as\u00a0combatants\u00a0or non-combatants\u00a0under international humanitarian law\u00a0\u2013 and benefit from protection.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The more civilians actively\u00a0participate\u00a0in hostilities, the more the line between civilians and combatants becomes blurred,\u00a0says the ICRC.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn several of today\u2019s armed conflicts, the ICRC has documented cases in which civilians were shot or detained because they were suspected of using their mobile phones to spy for parties to the conflict,\u201d Tilmann Rodenh\u00e4user,\u00a0a\u00a0legal adviser at the ICRC and co-author of the report,\u00a0told\u00a0Swissinfo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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One example where civilian\u00a0hackers\u00a0are most active is\u00a0in\u00a0Ukraine,\u00a0which was invaded by Russia in February 2022. The war in Ukraine has transformed civilian participation. They\u2019ve shifted\u00a0from\u00a0being\u00a0isolated informants to networked,\u00a0real-time intelligence contributors.\u00a0In March 2022, Ukraine\u2019s Ministry of Digital Transformation\u00a0introduced the chatbot eVorog (\u201ce-Enemy\u201d), allowing civilians to report troop movements, the location of unexploded ordnance, or the transport of materiel by Russian forces.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some groups of civilian hacktivists use distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) operations to weaken their opponents. In such attacks, perpetrators\u00a0attempt\u00a0to overwhelm a website with traffic to prevent its normal operation. A well-known example is the civilian group IT Army of Ukraine, which was created and encouraged by the Ukrainian government to attack Russian targets. According to its own statements, the IT Army aims to help Ukraine win by \u201cparalysing\u00a0the aggressor\u2019s economy and blocking key financial, infrastructure, and government services.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Blurred lines between civilians and combatants\u00a0<\/p>\n

International humanitarian law (IHL) does not prohibit \u201chacking\u201d as such, nor does it forbid civilians from conducting cyber operations against military targets.\u00a0But as the line between civilian and military\u00a0hackers\u00a0blurs, the question of\u00a0whether they should\u00a0benefit\u00a0from non-combatant protection is harder to answer.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The issue of civilian hackers and the protection of civilians in war is also of concern to the United Nations. In his report to the UN Security Council on the protection of civilians, UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres stated in May 2025: \u201cThe way in which information and communication technologies (ICT) are used in armed conflicts continues to raise concerns regarding compliance with international humanitarian law and the protection of civilians.\u201d Cyber operations, he added, could\u00a0damage\u00a0or disrupt critical infrastructure and services such as energy, transport, water supply, communications, or healthcare.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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A case\u00a0that\u00a0raises many questions\u00a0is the access last February of\u00a0Russian military accounts\u00a0by\u00a0Ukrainian\u00a0civilians.\u00a0Dozens of Russian military\u00a0accounts were hacked,\u00a0giving the hackers\u00a0access to monitoring systems used by Russian drone operators.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The hackers\u00a0then\u00a0passed the data on to the Ukrainian army. This improved the effectiveness of defenses against Russian drone attacks, particularly due\u00a0to information about drone routes and flight missions, according to the international intelligence community\u00a0InformNapalm, which was involved in the operation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

An analysis of\u00a0the\u00a0intercepted chats between drone pilots\u00a0indicated\u00a0that Russia used Belarusian civilian infrastructure\u00a0\u2014\u00a0especially mobile phone towers\u00a0\u2014\u00a0to plan drone routes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ICRC says that civilian hacking\u00a0can also lead to harming the population because civilian targets are either directly attacked or incidentally damaged. In addition, civilian hackers risk exposing themselves and people around them to military operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rules of international humanitarian law\u00a0<\/p>\n

Civilian hackers must\u00a0comply with\u00a0IHL, says the ICRC.\u00a0In\u00a0autumn 2023, the ICRC, which\u00a0is responsible for\u00a0monitoring and promoting compliance with\u00a0IHL, set out eight rules for civilian hackers in wartime.\u00a0These include the prohibition of attacks on civilians and hospitals, the prohibition of hacking tools that\u00a0spread\u00a0automatically, and the prohibition of threats that spread fear among the civilian population.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Several\u00a0organisations\u00a0subsequently\u00a0declared publicly that they would not attack civilian targets. In December 2023, the IT Army\u00a0stated\u00a0that it supported any Ukrainian hacktivist group that\u00a0complied with\u00a0ICRC rules and cooperated only with groups that did the same. The group Anonymous posted on X: \u201cWe condemn attacks on citizens who are not combatants.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHacker groups may lose their legal protection as civilians if they are considered part of a state\u2019s\u00a0armed forces or if their members directly participate in hostilities,\u201d said Anna Greipl,\u00a0a\u00a0co-author of the ICRC\u00a0and Geneva Academy report.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, a group that\u00a0operates\u00a0independently or\u00a0in which members are\u00a0loosely\u00a0connected\u00a0via\u00a0open online channels without a clear command structure would\u00a0most likely not\u00a0be\u00a0considered as\u00a0such, she added. In her assessment, both members of the IT Army of Ukraine and the group reported on by\u00a0InformNapalm\u00a0would\u00a0retain\u00a0their civilian status, provided they are not officially part of the Ukrainian armed forces.\u00a0But\u00a0individuals within these groups can still lose protection\u00a0if\u00a0they directly participate in hostilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Duties of governments\u00a0<\/p>\n

Governments also have\u00a0responsibilities,\u00a0say the authors.\u00a0States should avoid involving civilians in activities that bring them close to hostilities.\u00a0States are also obliged to prevent violations of\u00a0IHL\u00a0by civilians within their territory\u00a0\u2014\u00a0including civilian hackers and technology companies\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and to prosecute those who commit war crimes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When technology companies provide services in wartime\u00a0such as cybersecurity, communication infrastructure, or cloud storage,\u00a0their activities have legal and practical consequences, the report states. For example, defending military networks against cyberattacks may constitute direct participation in hostilities by employees. In some cases, their facilities may become military targets. The authors therefore call on companies to separate the parts of their infrastructure used by the military from those used for civilian customers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The risks faced by civilian hackers, as well as concerns that they may not be aware of legal limits and consequences, were also addressed in a 2024 resolution of the International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent. Further clarification by states and experts is taking place,\u00a0in\u00a0other forums, within the framework of the \u201cGlobal IHL Initiative,\u201d which aims to reinforce international humanitarian law.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many experts warn against setting the threshold too low when\u00a0determining\u00a0whether civilian hacker groups lose\u00a0their\u00a0protection. This\u00a0risks exposing a broad range of civilian cyber activities to lawful attack. \u201cThere is general agreement that merely downloading an app to support a DDoS campaign is not enough to constitute direct participation in hostilities,\u201d said\u00a0Greipl.<\/p>\n

Edited by Virginie Mangin\/gw<\/p>\n

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