Cyber Warfare

Cyber Warfare

Introduction

Cyberwarfare is Internet-based conflict involving politically motivated attacks on information and information systems. Cyberwarfare attacks can disable official websites and networks, disrupt or disable essential services, steal or alter classified data, and criple financial systems -- among many other possibilities.

According to Jeffrey Carr, author of "Inside Cyber Warfare," any country can wage cyberwar on any other country, irrespective of resources, because most military forces are network-centric and connected to the Internet, which is not secure. For the same reason, non-governmental groups and individuals could also launch cyberwarfare attacks. Carr likens the Internet's enabling potential to that of the handgun, which became known as "the great equalizer." The most effective protection against cyberwarfare attacks is securing information and networks. Security updates should be applied to all systems -- including those that are not considered critical -- because any vulnerable system can be co-opted and used to carry out attacks. Measures to mitigate the potential damage of an attack include comprehensive disaster recovery planning that includes provisions for extended outages.

With evolving computer technology and the birth of Artificial Intelligence, cyber warfare will play a role in not only regular warfare, but it will also create new types of war and a new types of crimes. As Andy Rooney once said "Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done." This is the best sentence to sum up cyber warfare. From the beginning of humanity, humans have been developing new and better ways of warfare. Computers are the newest way of warfare.

Examples of cyberwarfare

In 1998, the United States hacked into Serbia's air defense system to compromise air traffic control and facilitate the bombing of Serbian targets.

In 2007, in Estonia, a botnet of over a million computers brought down government, business and media websites across the country. The attack was suspected to have originated in Russia, motivated by political tension between the two countries.

Also in 2007, an unknown foreign party hacked into high tech and military agencies in the United States and downloaded terabytes of information.

In 2009, a cyber spy network called "GhostNet" accessed confidential information belonging to both governmental and private organizations in over 100 countries around the world. GhostNet was reported to originate in China, although that country denied responsibility.

Discussion

Their field is a young one, but the last few years have been salad days for the cyberwarriors. Computer attack appears no longer to be the exclusive purview of teenage hackers and organized criminals: along with its closely related and increasingly indistinguishable cousin electronic attack, cyberwarfare seems to be emerging as an instrument of national power alongside the more traditional military tools of guns and bombs. It is a new and rapidly-developing world, but its importance seems assured in conflicts between, or at least involving, relatively sophisticated powers. What is rather less clear, however, is what this new form of attack and manipulation means for how we approach statesmanship, and for concepts ...