IS CYBERWAR REAL?
By Maj Patrick Nyirishema, SC 02
Over the last 2 decades, the Internet has grown to become the dominant global medium for communication, information exchange and business. As a communications platform, it has enabled global connectedness, hence increasing the pace of globalization. This has effectively turned cyberspace into a new strategic common, the same way the sea is for global trade and international movement of goods. Modern militaries now consider cyberspace as a fifth domain, along with the traditional domains of sea, land, air and space.
The US Department of Defense defines cyberspace as ‘a global domain within the information environment consisting of the interdependent network of information technology infrastructures, including the Internet, telecommunications networks, computer systems, and embedded processors and controllers.’ Without dwelling on the semantics and definitions, suffice to say that cyberspace is a broader term than the Internet. However, it should also be noted that the Internet forms the bulk of cyberspace.
In modern economies, national critical infrastructure such as energy systems, transportation systems, water systems and financial systems are controlled by computer systems, which effectively makes them part of cyberspace. Any disruption to the smooth running of computer systems that control national critical infrastructure would have significant (and in some cases strategic) consequences for the nation concerned. Dealing with potential cyber threats has therefore become a high priority for national security and defense institutions across the world.
In the last decade, there has been systematic militarization of cyberspace by governments. This had slowly been building up un...
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...nd then suddenly cross a threshold into strategic effect.” This uncertainty requires actors to act with speed. William J. Lynn compares cyber warfare with manoeuvre warfare and says speed and agility, surprise and economy of force are key characteristics of war applicable to Cyberwar the same way they are in conventional wars.
It can be concluded that there are marked differences as well as similarities between the conduct of Cyberwar and conventional war, owing to the unique characteristics of cyberspace. Cyberwar is peculiar but real. For armies to equip themselves with Cyberwar capabilities calls for a different approach in the way they recruit cyber warriors, the way they train them and how they employ cyber weapons capability. There are policy and strategy questions to be answered by every country, which seeks to acquire and employ Cyberwar capabilities.
The author is this article is Kalev Leetaru, he is known as an American internet entrepreneur and academic. He is also a contributor to Foreign Policy, where he discusses current political events worldwide. He was appointed adjunct assistant professor at Georgetown university which is ranked #6 internationally and is an extremely well respected university in Washington DC.
At this juncture, it may be somewhat difficult to accept the proposition that a threat to the telecommunications grid, both wired and wireless, in the United States could potentially be subject to a catastrophic cyber attack. After careful research on the subject, it appears the potentiality of an event of such magnitude, which either disrupts one or the other grids for a long period or destroys either, is both theoretically and realistically impossible. It may be that proponents—those who advance such theories—equate such “doomsday” scenarios as if a cyber attack would or could be of the same magnitude as a conventional or nuclear military strike. Terms such as “cyber Pearl Harbor,” “cyber 9/11” and “cyber Vietnam” have been used to describes potential catastrophic cyber attacks and yet, “Though many have posited notions on what a ‘real’ cyber war would be like, we lack the understanding of how such conflicts will be conducted and evolve.” (Rattray & Healey, 2010, p. 77). Yet, the U.S. government continues to focus on such events, as if the plausibility of small-scale cyber attacks were not as pressing.
What is cyber warfare? Cyber warfare is the infiltration of a nation’s computers or networks by another nation or organization with the intention of espionage or causing damage
The military is tasked with the duty and responsibility of protecting the nation from external attacks and managing any attacks that may happen. Over the years, countries across the world have engaged in conflicts originating from differences in policies and invasion of privacy and unfair treatment of citizens in foreign countries. In...
Founded by the Monterey Group (Terrorism Committee for the U.S. Legislature), the United States adopted a three-level categorization for cyber-terror including simple-unstructured, advanced-structures, and complex-coordinated (Findlay, 2014). At the first level of cyber-terror is a simple unstructured attack. Under this category, a simple-unstructured attack involves very diminutive target analysis, command and control, or learning skills. This type of attack is normally planned within a matter of months and targets a general organization. Next is the level of an advanced-structured attack, which requires a straightforward target analysis, command and control, learning skills, and a high amount of planning in order to cause extensive damage. For example, in 2007, there was a three-week period of cyber-attacks on Estonia (located in Northern Europe), which targeted the country’s government, financial, and security divisions. Due to the extensive planning of this sophisticated attack, Estonia’s government was thrown into chaos and was unable to operate at full capacity. Finally, at the last level of cyber terrorism is the complex-coordinated attack (Extremely rare). At the highest level of terror, these attacks require substantial time, specialized skills, resources, and a highly capable target analysis. One of these substantially rare attacks
President Obama has realized the seriousness of the upcoming threats and turned the government focus more toward defending the information and communications infrastructure and In May 2009, he issued a request from top to bottom review of the current situation. The report titled the Cyberspace Policy Review includes strategy, policy, and standards regarding the security of and operations in cyberspace. According the white house’s cybersecurity foreign policy, the Cyberspace Policy Review highlighted two objectives and ten near-term actions to support the cybersecurity strategy.
The history of the internet shows that the internet is not a new medium. The internet was initially created in the 1960's to as a way for the United States to stay connected in case of a nuclear fallout due to the possible consequences of the Cold War. F...
Many nations in the world - the United States, China, Russia, Iran, Germany, and more- use cyber warfare as a method of conducting sabotage and espionage. Nations, such as China and Russia, use espionage in order to prevent their economy and their military technology from falling behind by stealing advanced nations’ technology. Other nations, including Israel and Iran, focus on sabotaging other nations to cripple them, by sending malwares that destroy important data on the system, from advancing their technology and costing them a decent amount of money due to repairs. Another popular cyber attack used, mainly with hacktivist, government- sympathetic groups not owned by the government, and nations less advanced in technology, is Denial-of-service, or DoS. DoS is used to hinder the target’s website and other things that are maintained by computers by making it unavailable to intended users. People argue there are no benefits for cyber warfare due to its potential destructive powers and instant process of destruction. While other people-looking from a different view find that cyber warfare does have its benefits. They argue that an important benefit is that cyber warfare takes place in cyber space meaning that it does not physically harm people. They also argue that cyber warfare draws the awareness of the nation on the ever increasing dangers of cyber warfare and forces the government to set up stronger cyber security to fend off international attacks, which also help protect the government from internal hackers. It also creates more jobs for hackers, who use their knowledge to increase the security instead of harm it. Although cyber warfare produces damaging effects on a nation, in the long run, it crea...
Society has become ever-increasingly dependent upon technology, more specifically, computers to conduct personal and business transactions and communications. Consequently, criminals have targeted these systems to conduct information and cyber warfare, which can include politically motivated attacks and to profit through ill-gotten means. In an article written by Koblentz and Mazanec (2013), cyber warfare is the act of disabling an enemy’s ability to use or obtain information, degrading its ability to make decisions, and to command its military forces. Additionally, information warfare is composed of cyber warfare and related to the protection, disruption, destruction, denial, or manipulation of information in order to gain a benefit through the technologies (Taddeo, 2012). Accordingly, as technology becomes readily available to various entities, the ability to conduct or perform warfare through technological means is multiplying.
Unequivocally speaking, the threat of a cyber-attack has become one of the most critical domestic and national security challenges we face as a nation today. Infrastructures supporting government operations are ...
Warfare is always evolving and everyone wants the new and more powerful weapon; from men fighting with sticks and stones to launching nuclear missiles and full scale invasions. The newest type of warfare is cyber warfare. Cyber warfare has the possibility to be more destructive than nuclear war.
Information Warfare is not only becoming more rampantly used among people, but they are using different types as well. There are three different classifications of Information Warfare. The first one deals with personal information warfare. This is inclusive with all the information that is available about an individual. Class two deals with corporate information warfare, which involves how information effects companies, businesses, and all economic interests. Of all the classes the third one has the broadest margin. The third class is global information warfare. This purpose of this class is to deal with all a...
It is difficult to define cyberculture because its boundaries are uncertain and applications to certain circumstances can often be disputed. The common threads of defining cyberculture is a culture which has evolved and continues to evolve from the use of computer networks and the internet and is guided by social and cultural movements reflective of advancements in scientific and technological information. It is not a unified culture but rather a culture that exists in cyberspace and is a compilation of numerous new technologies and capabilities, used by diverse people in diverse real – world locations. Cyberculture, a twentieth century phenomenon, has brought challenges unlike any other that the United States has seen in the areas of cyber security and its impact on our most critical institutions. This presentation will focus on the aforementioned three entities where national security is in jeopardy, in part due to cyberculture and its intentional use for disruptive and destructive purposes.
Computer crime or Cyber Crime is defined as any type of crime that involves or regards a computer or computer network. Cyber Crime mainly means that the computer may be used as a tool in the commission of the crime or the computer may be the main target of the criminal’s crime. The rapid growth of technology and gadgets as well as the further de...
Cybercrime refers to all forms of crime conducted through a computer or a mobile device using computer networks. It is thus the use of a computer with the aim of intercepting and manipulating content, disrupting communication, stealing or generally destroying others’ information or hardware through a network. Although cybercrime is a worldwide problem and affects both small and big companies, small companies are affected more from the dangers of cybercrime. The rapid advancement in technology is causing tremendous problems to businesses in terms of more sophisticated cyber-attacks. This project is interesting and beneficial because it enlightens one on the dangers of cybercrime, thus preparing individuals to know how to prevent attacks while online, how to reduce the effects of a cyber-attack and how to prevent future