Legal Authority

Abstract

Title 10 and Title 50 of the US Code are legal documents that outline the responsibilities of the Department of Defense (DoD) and Intelligence Community (IC), respectively. These two documents—with regard to war itself and cyber warfare specifically—are often poorly understood, misrepresented, and incorrectly cited. The intense interest and scrutiny in these documents is related to the legal authority they endow and the manner and responsibility for oversight of actions within that authority. I will do my best to efficiently summarize the importance of these documents to the warfighter and to cyber warfare itself as well as covering a third type of activity in covert action. I will also attempt to establish a fairly reliable line where activity must be done in the constraints of one title or another. I will further discuss examples of how this affects technical aspects of cyber warfare.