Boom! The kinetic effect of a two-thousand pound “GBU-31” military designated “MK-84” bomb, possibly with a “BLU-109” penetrator on the nose cone with an embedded global positioning system guidance kit provides obvious visible damage—somebody, or something, just fractured into smaller pieces. The same is not necessarily the case with bellicose actions in the cyber dimension—at least not at first look. Senior leaders as a whole have largely ignored cyber warfare’s catastrophic potential due to the initial invisible physical effects and huge costs associated with protecting our systems and information. As our reliance on technology grows as exponentially as the technology improves, more people are finally showing an awareness of the “silent boom’s” threat and its actual fracturing potential, in part due to protagonists like Richard A. Clarke and Robert K. Knake and their continued warn of cyber war’s devastating potential for first, second, and tertiary effects.
Clarke and Knake use a mixed method research approach in Cyber War to support their hypothesis that offensive prowess is meaningless without solid defense in cyberspace, and that the United States need immediately fix our defensive cyber shortfalls, or face apocalyptic doom. Specifically, the authors define ‘cyber war’ as “actions by a nation state to penetrate another nation’s computers or networks for the purposes of causing damage or disruption.” This infers that they are really talking about ‘warfare’ and
In order to properly answer the question posed we must first define what cyber-war and cyber-terrorism are. The Oxford Dictionaries defines cyber-war as “The use of computer technology to disrupt the activities of a state or organization, especially the deliberate attacking of communication systems by another state or organization:” Although there is no dictionary definition of cyber-terrorism, The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has defined it as “the use of computer network tools to shut down critical national infrastructures (e.g., energy, transportation, government operations) or to coerce or intimidate a government or civilian population.” The author defines cyber terror as “the intimidation of civilian enterprise through the use of high technology to bring about political, religious, or ideological aims, actions that result in disabling or deleting critical infrastructure data or information.”
Drawing from authors like Jason Andress who is an academic teacher and a professional security expert, the book Cyber Warfare states that “The U.S. military does not have a definition for cyber warfare today” (53). While this work was published in 2014, it is still a fair assessment into today. According to the CCDCOE, again on their webpage “Cyber Definitions,” cyber warfare as agreed between The United States and Russia is defined as “cyber attacks that are authorized by state actors against cyber infrastructure in conjunction with government campaign.” The two nations also define cyber attacks in the same agreement to mean “an offensive use of a cyber weapon intended to hard designated target.” Finally, the two nations define cyber
cyber policy has embraced this idea. “The Plan declared that in order for it to succeed, government and the private sector must work together in a partnership. However since the regulation has been in place it has failed to provide the security necessary to protect U.S. critical infrastructure from a cyber attack. Even Congress has been slow to act regarding almost all aspects of cyber policy (Wolf, J. 12 July, 2012).” One of the problems facing a comprehensive cyber security bill is that computers have become so omnipresent in our daily lives that they cross every sector of the economy. It is not surprising that application of the laws of war to cyber attacks has recently been a popular topic in politics. Some have even analyzed whether a cyber attack can constitute an armed attack, it can but, whether a cyber attack with a specified effect constitutes a use of force. An example, if the U.S. could prove that Iran absolute sent a computer virus that infected a Wall Street, would dropping a bomb on Iran be justify? A responsible nation must always consider the possibilities of collateral damage in deciding whether an act of self defense is justified, be it cyber or kinetic. While the United States must undoubtedly increase its cyber defense capabilities, the nation cannot retreat behind a Line of firewalls. As in the fight against terrorism, the United States must be vigilant and aggressive in the face of both cyber attacks and
Cyber warfare is part of the American defense military strategy of proactive cyber defense and the use of cyber warfare as a means of attack. According to the United States military cyber attack is a form of ancient act of war. In 2013 Cyber warfare was, for the first time, perceived as a major threat than terrorist or Al Qaeda, according to U.S. intelligence officials. Representative Rogers Mike the leader of the U.S House permanent select committee on Intelligence, He said July 2013 that majority of Americans could not realized that the United States was under the middle of a cyber war. Cyber Warfare is an impending threat to the United States homeland security. Technology has been integrated in virtually every sphere of life in the form of computer technology including security. The modernization and revolution of the information technology has awakened to a new down of information warfare, a threat that stubbornly dogs the United States Homeland Security in form of cyber terrorism. The threat is an invisible war with weapons of automation yet with detrimental intent to espionage and sabotage security. This research paper intends to investigate the history of cyber terrorism, why cyber terrorism has flourished means of making the internet safer.
As the spectrum of cyber has grown, the ability to exert influence in this emerging dimension provides broadened capabilities due to cyberspace?s low barriers to entry and fluid nature.[footnoteRef:3] Cyber incidents can thus range between a basic denial of service attack (where a network is overloaded with requests and shuts down)[footnoteRef:4] to operations of much greater severity. Increased state capacity to use offensive cyber resources is evidenced by official publications such as the 2015 Department of Defense Cyber Strategy.[footnoteRef:5] This includes measures up to the level of offensive cyberattacks on enemy systems and networks. The increased sophistication of offensive cyber weaponry means that the implications of its usage will have to bear further scrutiny. This challenge is only exacerbated by emerging capabilities available to non-State actors and their ability to exploit cyber resources to their advantage in asymmetric conflict. [3: Singer, P.W., & Allan Friedman,
A lot of opinions and meanings has been given to the word “Cyberterrorism”. Some of these meanings and definitions varies. In this light, Gordon and Ford (2003) are concerned that when 10 people define cyberterrorism and nine of the given answers are different, and these 10 people represent different government agencies tasked with safeguarding national assets and infrastructure, then it becomes a critical issue.
Before state sanctioned cyber-attacks against U.S. organizations, infrastructure, and government can be analyzed, the concepts and environment surrounding the issue must be explored. These concepts include the traditional theoretical views of war and armed conflict, the current definitions of cyber-warfare, and the relationship of armed conflict and law in the changing landscape of the twenty-first century. Many of these concepts are still actively debated today due to building and breaking of relationships, evolving nature of cyber warfare, and the dynamism phenomenon or state of the environment, which Daft (2016) defines as “stable or unstable, simple or complex” (p.146). In
To begin with, the first issue which arises is “regarding the precise legal parametres of cyberwarfare. ” In advising the department, counsel advises the department to utilize the following definition cited by Schaap as the bedrock upon its understanding of cyber warfare rests;
1. Today, there is a new battlefield domain where a keyboard and mouse are the new weapons of conflict. With land, sea, air and space in the background, warfare has entered a fifth domain: cyber. In this position paper, using a pro and con format, the debate on whether or not the Department of Defense (DoD) should create a new, independent branch for cyber will be discussed. To do this, the following will examine both sides of debate by highlighting two main points: the elimination of duplication of effort and the intensive resources required to make the transition. Finally, a look into a larger talent pool will be explored to highlight the largest benefit of creating a new Cyber Force. It is this paper’s stance that the DoD should create a separate structure in order to meet the new domain’s unique demands.
Computers today control much of the military and the civilian cyber infrastructure. The U.S. alone uses over two million computers and has over ten thousand cyber networks. According to some reports, over 95% of all the Military?s telecommunications travel through public networks and a significant amount
Computers today control much of the military and civilian cyber infrastructure. The U.S. alone uses over two million computers and has over ten thousand cyber networks. According to some reports, over 95% of all the Military?s telecommunications travel through public networks and a significant amount of
In computer science, there is a law named “Moore 's Law” which states that every eighteen to twenty-four months, the number of transistors that can fit on a computer chip will double. This exponential growth of computing power has brought the human race to a point where we can almost no longer be completely human. While these advancements were done with strong and positive intentions, new security dangers have arisen along with them. Though a large chunk of these dangers are studied and well known by some, little is being done to prevent these dangers and it needs to change.
In support of the requirement for officers trained in cyber warfare techniques and technologies, the ROTC Cyber Research program provides cadets with opportunities to research and solve real world problems in cyber security and cyber counter-terrorism.
Cyber warfare is a major concern for the global society. The introduction, development and operation of information and communication technologies have been accompanied by an increase in criminal accomplishments. With regard to cyberspace, the Internet is increasely been used as a tool and medium by organized crime. In order to commit cybercrime, cyber weapon are needed.
In understanding the field of international security studies, an array of technical terms and concepts must first be defined. Throughout this research paper I will be using various terminology relating to the cyberspace and its struggles when evaluating the magnitude of potential cyber threats.