Computer Law Commons^™

Characterizing Caldera’S Cyber Attack Emulation Capabilities, Caleb Chang, Matthew Cao, Kenyou Teoh, Ekzhin Ear, Shouhuai Xu

Military Cyber Affairs

Autonomous cyber attack emulation can aid cyber defenders to identify and remediate cyber risks. MITRE’s Caldera software is the state-of-the-practice for automated attack emulation. Yet, it has not been systematically analyzed, putting its performance and effectiveness into question. This paper systematically characterizes Caldera’s architecture, abilities and use cases, and assesses its strengths and weaknesses. It draws useful insights, such as: Caldera excels in stealthy access and execution tactics to pilfer data against Windows operating systems. It also discusses two directions for Caldera improvement: module-level automation and end-to-end attack emulation.

The Digital Battlefield: Safeguarding Military Drones Against Cyberattacks, Jason Ashong, Arun Venkitanarayanan, Benjamin Yankson

Military Cyber Affairs

The Internet of Battlefield Things (IoBT) is an advanced network of interconnected devices that significantly enhance military operations through real-time data exchange and situational awareness. While IoBT offers tactical advantages like improved surveillance, reconnaissance, and operational effectiveness, it also introduces substantial cybersecurity risks. Adversaries can exploit vulnerabilities within these networks, potentially compromising mission integrity and national security. This research examines the cybersecurity measures of commercial drone controllers and their correlation with military devices. It aims to enhance future vulnerability assessments with advanced tools and approaches to better secure critical military operations. The study highlights the need for robust security architectures …

Using Blockchain Technology To Help Secure America's Defense Critical Infrastructure, Vimal Buck, Aerin Krebs, Brynn Hillard, Jakob Gerha, Joseph Lutma, Srikar Maduposu, Ted Allen

Military Cyber Affairs

Critical water infrastructure in the United States faces increasing cybersecurity threats from state-sponsored actors, with potentially devastating consequences for national security, economic stability, and public health. (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, 2025). This infrastructure supports defense critical assets and is actively being targeted by various state-sponsored hacking groups, which poses a major concern for civilians and military alike. K. Herath (personal communication, February 24, 2025) reported being aware of two attacks on Ohio water systems during his tenure as Cybersecurity Strategic Advisor to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine.

Water is essential to everyday life and defense and presents as a high-value …

Network And Multipath Traceroute Visualization, Cameron Makowski

Military Cyber Affairs

TraceCam introduces a new paradigm in network path analysis, leveraging GPU-accelerated WebGL visualization, advanced traceroute integrations, and AI-driven insights to transform complex routing data into actionable intelligence. Early prototypes have demonstrated significant improvements in performance, clarity, and multi-path discovery, overcoming traditional limitations in traceroute analysis. By incorporating retrieval-augmented language models and enriched metadata sources like IPinfo.io, TraceCam enables automated anomaly detection, contextual explanations, and rapid root-cause analysis, enhancing operational efficiency. The platform’s architecture ensures scalability and adaptability, supporting deeper investigations and real-time situational awareness. Future development will focus on clustering-based anomaly detection, expanded geographic visualizations, and enhanced AI-generated analysis to …

Quantifying Adversary Military Forces’ Susceptibility To Cognitive Attacks, Bonnie Rushing, Cole Nelson, Shouhuai Xu, Christofer “Raven” O’Keefe, Olga Karpoyan

Military Cyber Affairs

This paper introduces a method to quantify international populations’ susceptibility to cyber cognitive attacks using press freedom and media trust metrics. We present the Cognitive Influence Calculator, a tool that estimates susceptibility (𝑆) based on Press Freedom Scores (PFS) and media trust levels. Findings show that while authoritarian regimes are harder to reach, successful cognitive attacks have greater impacts due to higher trust in state-controlled narratives. Using U.S. wargaming data and international trust metrics, we compute susceptibility scores for the U.S., Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. Results show an inverse relationship between PFS and media susceptibility, with local/allied …

Forward, Amy Hamilton

Military Cyber Affairs

No abstract provided.

Understanding Russia’S Cyber Policies, Strategies, And Doctrines, Bryan Hancock, Hanh Nguyen, Olga Karpoyan, Ekzhin Ear, Shouhuai Xu

Military Cyber Affairs

This study analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of Russia’s cyber policies, strategies, and doctrines through a systematic set of attributes, leading to key insights: (i) Russia has proactively adapted its cyber policies, strategies, and doctrines to its evolving environment; (ii) Russia actively conducts cognitive warfare, but remains equally vulnerable to it; and (iii) Russia’s cyber posture faces significant challenges, including a limited technological base, shortage of skilled personnel, and restrictive approach to information control, all of which undermine the effectiveness of its strategies. These insights offer valuable implications for US Cyber Command and the Department of Defense.

Characterizing Cyberattacks Against Operational Technology Infrastructures Through The Lens Of Attack Flows, Sherman Kettner, Caleb Chang, Ekzhin Ear, Shouhuai Xu

Military Cyber Affairs

Operational Technology (OT) infrastructures play a critical role in modern society and economy. However, their increasing connectivity with public networks such as the Internet has made them vulnerable to cyberattacks, much like traditional Information Technology (IT) systems. In particular, cyberattacks against OT infrastructures remain relatively underexplored and little understood. In this paper, we aim to deepen our understanding of cyberattacks against OT infrastructures. For this purpose, we propose a methodology, including novel cybersecurity metrics to analyze the attack flows of these attacks in an end-to-end fashion, which allows us to draw useful insights. We demonstrate the utility of the methodology …

The Complex Interplay Between Intellectual Property And The Right To Science, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

In April 2020, the U.N. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights released General Comment No. 25, which provides an authoritative interpretation of the right to science—a right that has hitherto not received much attention. In light of this publication and the recent celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, this article examines the complex interplay between intellectual property and the right to science, with a view toward the human rights challenges brought about by both the COVID-19 pandemic and the arrival of generative AI.

The article begins by documenting the historical evolution of the …

America’S Rampant Gun Epidemic: How 3d Printers Are Only Adding Fuel To The Fire, Haley Lustbader

Journal of Law and Policy

The assassination of the United Healthcare CEO in December of 2024 captivated national attention, specifically over the killer’s use of a homemade three dimensional (“3D”) printed gun. The use of 3D printing poses a breadth of opportunity for useful and valuable innovation across a variety of fields, such as allowing advancements in medical technology. However, with technology expansion comes associated risk and, in this case, that risk is the potential for increased presence of illegal firearms. Anyone with access to a 3D printer can download the necessary files and print weapon parts to create their own unregistered, untraceable firearms, including …

Ai Inventorship: Recognizing The True Inventors Requires Change, Nicholas Scambia

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

The Analytical Engine was conceived almost two hundred years ago—a general-purpose programmable computing engine which had essential features resembling a modern-day computer. While truly a marvel for its time, the Analytical Engine lacked the ability to perform functions on its own, as it was only able to do tasks for which it was programmed.

Today, artificial intelligence (“AI”) has become increasingly popular and powerful and is projected to keep growing. AI demonstrated its autonomous strength to the whole world on national TV when IBM’s Watson competed on Jeopardy!, beating the game show’s legends Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. Since …

No Lawyer, No Jail: A Critical Case Study Of Pragmatism And The Flaws Of “Purposeful” Decision Making In Argersinger V. Hamlin, Alisa Smith, Sarah K. Stice

Seattle University Law Review

By releasing conference notes and internal communications, Supreme Court Justices provide insight into the otherwise private decisionmaking process, shedding light on how case outcomes and legal reasoning are framed and negotiated. The watershed case of Argersinger v. Hamlin (1972) extended the constitutional right to counsel to some, but not all, misdemeanor defendants. The case was argued twice, and the Court relied on empirical and authoritative sources to answer complex and practical questions about requiring counsel. This case study employs critical discourse analysis to uncover what influenced the Justices’ decisions and how they framed, shaped, and constructed social realities to foreground …

The Race To Erase: Destruction Of Government Documents Undermines Freedom-Of-Information Laws, Frank D. Lomonte

Seattle University Law Review

In August 2019, reporters with Chattanooga’s daily newspaper, the Times Free Press, filed what seemed to be a routine request for access to emails and other public records held by their local county government. The seemingly unremarkable request set the newspaper’s staff on a months-long journey of unpleasant surprises. The first was a demand to pay the county $717 in advance before being allowed to inspect the documents. The second was that—during prolonged haggling over the fee assessment— the county attorney’s office simply destroyed almost all of the disputed records. Third, and most glaringly, the journalists discovered that Tennessee law …

When You’Re Arrested For A Felony In Seattle, You’Ll Meet Me., Austin Field

Seattle University Law Review

In this Essay, Austin Field, a practicing public defender, uses a first-person perspective to describe what it is like to meet a criminal defendant for the first time. He explains the process from start to finish, detailing everything from the way he introduces himself to how bail works.

"I’ll ask you for your name. Most of the time, you tell me. I check your name against my list. On any given day I’m supposed to interview between five and fifteen people. I have a lot of questions for you. We only have about ten minutes."

The Public Square In A Private-Property Obsessed Country: What New York City’S Pops Regulations Get Right And Why Other Cities Should (Mostly) Copy Them, Carson Mcgregor

Seattle University Law Review

When New York City (NYC) was first becoming the metropolitan monolith it is today, it had a problem: the city streets were chock full of skyscrapers, and sunlight, air, and usable open space were at a premium. In response, the City promulgated its first Privately Owned Public Spaces (POPS) regulations, which allowed developers to build skyward in exchange for providing public space on the street level. Unfortunately, in July of 2023, the New York Times (NYT) discovered that New Yorkers received only a fraction of what they were promised. Building owners received billions of dollars’ worth of added floor space, …

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Defining Deference: Impacts Of Abandoning Chevron On Emerging Technology Governance And Administrative Law, R. Aubrey Davis Iii

Seattle University Law Review

Emerging technologies, particularly Artificial Intelligence (AI), often lead to unforeseen legal outcomes. Notable abuses in areas such as facial recognition, employment bias, and housing discrimination are well known. However, legislative responses to these issues either have been largely reactive or there has been no legislative response at all. In lieu of legislation, agencies have sought to fill the gap. For example, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently proposed a rule mandating voter notification for all AI-generated political phone calls citing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) of 1991 as authority. However, the TCPA was originally passed to curtail telemarketing, not …

Intellectual Property Or Modern Folklore? The Problem With Open Gaming Licenses In Tabletop Gaming, Rosie Midget

Seattle University Law Review

This Note addresses how courts and legislatures should address “Open Gaming Licenses” commonly attached to tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs), which game publishers use to promote a false image of accessibility—misleading consumers and building goodwill from the misunderstanding. Part I discusses what TTRPGs are, including the defining features of the hobby and culture surrounding it, as well as the unique interplay between publishers and players. Part II explores the question of which elements in a TTRPG system may be subject to copyright protection. Part III examines these elements in practice using Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons and Dragons TTRPG as a …

Modern Day Colonialism Through HawaiʻI’S Quiet Title And Partition Laws, Cheyann Fujii

Seattle University Law Review

This Note will attempt to highlight important aspects of Hawaiian history to provide readers with a clear picture on how Native Hawaiians are still impacted by colonialism, specifically when plaintiffs bring a quiet title or partition action against Native Hawaiian owners of kuleana lands. Before colonization, the concept of private land ownership did not exist in Hawai‘i, and Native Hawaiians adopted a feudal system by dividing land into geographical areas. Missionaries and businessmen brought Western ideas to Hawai‘i and influenced legislation such as the Great Māhele and the Kuleana Land Act of 1850, which solidified the concept of private property. …

Data Advantage And Merger Review: Can Entrenchment Theory Reform Antitrust Enforcement?, Shin-Ru Cheng

Seattle University Law Review

A merger involving giant digital companies is likely to dampen competition, as it allows those companies to combine and control data access, enabling them to entrench their dominant positions in relevant markets and extend those positions into related markets. While competition law in many jurisdictions aims to prohibit mergers that may substantially lessen competition or create a monopoly, arguably the review of digital mergers is failing because antitrust agencies lack an effective approach to identify data-generated anticompetitive harms. This Article demonstrates that entrenchment theory, recently reintroduced in the 2023 U.S. Merger Guidelines, would help reform the process of antitrust enforcement. …