UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — Cyber warfare is outpacing global legal accountability

Q1. Under the framework of the UN Charter, the primary responsibility for authorising enforcement action against a threat or use of force (Article 2(4)) and for overseeing measures taken in self-defence (Article 51) rests with which one of the following principal organs of the United Nations?

  • A. United Nations Security Council
  • B. United Nations General Assembly
  • C. International Court of Justice
  • D. United Nations Secretariat

Q2. The Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Operations was drawn up by a group of independent experts convened at the invitation of which one of the following bodies?

  • A. NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, Tallinn
  • B. International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva
  • C. UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, New York
  • D. International Court of Justice, The Hague

Q3. In analyses of the Israel–Iran confrontation, which one of the following episodes is described as the moment when cyber operations first became fully integrated with kinetic strikes?

  • A. The June 2025 'Twelve-Day War'
  • B. The March 2026 destructive malware attack on Stryker Corporation
  • C. The March 2026 US DOJ seizure of MOIS-linked domains
  • D. The 2021 first-ever UN Security Council debate on cyber threats

Q4. According to assessments cited by the FBI, the Handala Hack Team operates as a front for which one of the following Iranian entities?

  • A. Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS)
  • B. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)
  • C. Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics
  • D. Basij Resistance Force

Q5. The activity of the Handala Hack Team is frequently characterised as a 'hack-and-leak operation'. Which one of the following best describes such an operation?

  • A. Exfiltrating data from a target and then publicly releasing it to intimidate, coerce or shape the information environment
  • B. Encrypting a victim's files and demanding a ransom payment in exchange for the decryption key
  • C. Overwhelming a target's servers with traffic so that legitimate users are denied access
  • D. Inserting malicious code into a trusted software vendor to compromise its downstream customers

Q6. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), the primary national nodal agency for responding to cyber security incidents under Section 70B of the Information Technology Act, 2000, was operationalised in which year?

  • A. 2004
  • B. 2000
  • C. 2008
  • D. 2013

Q7. In its March 2026 action to disrupt Iranian MOIS cyber-enabled psychological operations, the principal enforcement measure taken by the US Department of Justice was the seizure of how many internet domains?

  • A. Four
  • B. Two
  • C. Six
  • D. Ten

Q8. In the classification of hostile activity in cyberspace, which one of the following best captures the specific meaning of 'cyber espionage'?

  • A. Using information-technology systems and networks to covertly gather secret or confidential information without the permission of the holder
  • B. A premeditated, politically motivated attack intended to incite terror or violence against non-combatant targets
  • C. Disruptive hacking undertaken to advance an ideological cause while generally avoiding intentional civilian casualties
  • D. Attacking another nation's critical infrastructure to damage or disable its war-fighting capability