For instance, by launching a ransomware operation against a hospital, adversaries can collapse entire civilian medical facilities by withholding their data. Modern day States and belligerents can cause more harm to civilians by directing attacks on data, than destruction of physical objects through military operations ever did. It is of absolute importance that the States and international bodies prepare themselves and prepare robust legal frameworks that would generate strong preventive measures against cyber threats and attacks that could harm civilian lives. When data is not duly protected during an armed conflict, it can cause grave paralysis to day-to-day civilian activities such as public infrastructure and other services essential to humans. Until and unless there is a clear-cut understanding of which aspect of data has to be protected from adversarial cyberspace attacks, it is going to be a colossal task for humanitarian law to provide any protection for data in an armed conflict leading to sporadic patterns of damage and casualties. Amidst an obvious paradigm shift in kinetic warfare as such, the question of protection of data in armed conflicts still grapples with conceptual confusions and definitional obscurities concerning the notion of data itself leading to nebulous laws in cyber warfare. States no longer deploy its troops to partake in armed conflicts rather they comfortably plan mass attacks that are launched in cyber space by targeting data stored in computers. Among these, one can very intelligibly and visibly notice the changes in modern day warfare.

With the advancement of science and technology, many aspects of the human community are changing rapidly. Due to her passion on war studies, she engages in research related studies mainly linked to International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law. She is a double degree holder in LLB Hons (UK)and BA (Special) in International Relations, University of Colombo. U.L.B Nipuni is an Attorney-at-Law of Sri Lanka currently serving as a Consultant/Lecturer at the National Institute of Business Management.

Law of armed conflict and cyber warfare