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Targeting the innocent Active defense and the moral immunity of innocent persons from aggression

Targeting the innocent Active defense and the moral immunity of innocent persons from aggression Private persons and entities are increasingly adopting aggressive active defense measures i.e., hack back against Internetbased attacks that can infringe the rights of innocent persons. In this paper, I argue that aggressive active defense cannot be justified by the Necessity Principle, which defines a moral liberty to infringe the right of an innocent person if necessary to achieve a significantly greater moral good. It is a necessary condition for justifiably acting under an ethical principle that we have adequate reason to believe its applicationconditions are satisfied. Since, absent special knowledge, the victim of a hacker attack will not be able to reliably predict the direct or indirect consequences of aggressive countermeasures, she lacks adequate reason to think that those measures will achieve a good that significantly outweighs the evil that is done to innocent parties. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Information Communication and Ethics in Society Emerald Publishing

Targeting the innocent Active defense and the moral immunity of innocent persons from aggression

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References (2)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN
1477-996X
DOI
10.1108/14779960480000241
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Private persons and entities are increasingly adopting aggressive active defense measures i.e., hack back against Internetbased attacks that can infringe the rights of innocent persons. In this paper, I argue that aggressive active defense cannot be justified by the Necessity Principle, which defines a moral liberty to infringe the right of an innocent person if necessary to achieve a significantly greater moral good. It is a necessary condition for justifiably acting under an ethical principle that we have adequate reason to believe its applicationconditions are satisfied. Since, absent special knowledge, the victim of a hacker attack will not be able to reliably predict the direct or indirect consequences of aggressive countermeasures, she lacks adequate reason to think that those measures will achieve a good that significantly outweighs the evil that is done to innocent parties.

Journal

Journal of Information Communication and Ethics in Society – Emerald Publishing

Published: Feb 29, 2004

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