| > Under international law, crews of merchant ships aren't allowed to carry weapons That isn't true. It's perfectly legal for an American ship in international waters to carry weapons aboard. Shipping companies hire armed security to protect their ships even though it's not common. Depending on the country, a very heavily armed ship may have a problem in certain ports, but small arms kept aboard aren't a problem in most places. If you want larger weapons, companies could hire escort boats. >Are companies legally bound to stay vulnerable? No. Most choose to do so - consciously or not - because to date they've gotten away with a weak security posture. This is just the nature of business. An appropriate mitigation would be for Congress to pass legislation requiring companies to safeguard their systems. Sure companies need better security, but no security policy will stop a sufficiently motivated attacker. Expecting private citizens to be solely responsible for protecting themselves from foreign militaries is absurd. >Retaliation in this case would involve the American Navy sending landing parties ashore to Somalia, or attacking Somalian cargo ships in a tit-for-tat fashion. Retaliation in this case would be the US launching cyber attacks and stealing trade secrets from private foreign companies. Instead they are directly attacking cyber combatants. |