UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA LAW — Given the current global practice of using big data to guide and monitor domestic populations as well as potential threats, Paul Stephan, who is also a senior fellow at UVA’s Miller Center of Public Affairs, raised legal questions like: could big data, which is growing in significance, be treated like territory, people and property, which are more traditional objects of international conflict, including armed conflict? Could a cyberattack on a data center that causes havoc, but no physical damage to the building or the people in it, justify an armed response?