Cyber-Warfare: The Importance of the New Digital Battlefield Essay

In the article, Thomas Rid’s main argument other than the contention that cyber war will not happen is that cyber war is completely misplaced if not entirely misunderstood. He argues that the concept of cyber war is not in tandem with the historical definition and understanding of what constitutes ‘’war’’. Rid’s definition of war, borrowed from Carl von Clausewitz, is that war must constitute three elements: violence, instrumental and political. (Rid, Cyber War Will Not Take Place, 2012) Therefore, his main argument against the possibility for cyber war is premised on the idea that cyber war can never have or express the above three elements. He further argues that at best, cyber war can achieve some of the above criteria such as violence

With cyber war, nations are able to skip the battlefield. Gone are the days where troops line up across from each other hoping to do damage to the other. Clarke explains that people, industries, governments, companies and organizations can be possible targets and are vulnerable to these attacks. Keeping that in mind should help these targets become defensive minded and shield off attacks before they happen. As we all know, the prevention is better than the

The most recents detections of how cyber warfare is inevitably coming was the accusations of Russia hacking the the Democratic National Committee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email’s releasing damaging evidence against them which ultimately lead to Donald Trump being named the President of The United States (Diamond, 2016). The effects of cyber warfare have leaked over in to televise series, forming shows such as CSI cyber, and the gaming world, Call Of Duty Infinite Warfare. Neglect regarding cyber security can: undermine the reputation of both the government and elected officials; force unacceptable expenditures associated with the cost of cleaning up after security breaches; cripple governments' abilities to respond to a wide variety of homeland security emergency situations or recover from natural or man-made threats; and disable elected officials' ability to govern (Lohrmann, 2010). Classified information such as overseas operators and attacks, missile locations, response plans and weaknesses, and much more cripples America’s ability to defend itself from enemies both foreign and domestic. To combat cyber terrorism is the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, or CISA. In an article titled “Why Cybersecurity Information Sharing Is A Positive Step for Online Security” it is discussed that under CISA, the Department of Homeland security will have more responsibility for domestic cybersecurity. CISA’s fundamental purpose is to better enable cybersecurity information to be shared between the private and public sectors (2016). The sharing of threat information between public and private sectors can give the the United States a head start by allowing them to share information rapidly and more often to combat enemy threats while still providing safety for privacy and civil

In “Cyber war is Already Upon Us” by John Arquilla. Arquilla argues that “cyber war has arrived” and there needs to be focus on what can be done to control it (Arquilla 4). Arquilla provides examples of cyber attacks that he considers to be instances of cyber war to argue his point. To be considered an act of war, an attack must be potentially violent, purposeful, and political (Lecture 20. Slide 5). Many of the attacks that Arquilla refers to were purposeful and political, making them comparable to specific battles within a war. However, they should not be classified as entire wars by themselves because traditionally war is defined as a period of ongoing conflict and not one specific attack. While cyber war is a possibility, nothing in

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.”

The United States government needs to focus less on physical warfare and more on cyber warfare.

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

A cyber attack was made on Estonia in 2007, on 26 April 2007 at sharp 10'o clock; government of Estonia was made the target for a preplanned cyber attack by some secret foe (Stacy Prowell, 2010).

From the advent of the Internet, there came with it the opportunity for any of its users to have access to any information they seeked right at their fingertips. With this access; entertainment, market opportunities, educational information, productivity, and global communication were able to grow and flourish, however with these gains seen came with it the weakening of the once secure national strength seen in nations. In the last two decades cyberspace has been defined as the 'fifth battleground’ for international relations, with the aspects of cyber war, cyber terrorism, and cybercrime as some of the largest threats to the security of the national and international community. (Popović, 2013) With this ‘fifth battleground’ of the cyberspace thrown into the international battlegrounds of old, its effectiveness and effect on the both the modern state and the international bodies of the world, posing the question of how will this increased accessibility to the cyberspace will affect national security in the coming years?

As the future of warfare becomes more sophisticated, what will be the military technology of tomorrow? The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, believes that there are three possible answers to that question: nuclear warfare, biological/chemical warfare, or cyber warfare. While nuclear and biological warfare is conducted on a battlefield, cyber warfare operates via the Internet and computers. All of these weapons have the same destructive potential, but the circumstances surrounding

What is cyber warfare and what has been known about it? Well, not much has been brought into the attention of the people because of interest that is set from all sorts of media. It has come to the attention of news that seeing is more captivating than what can be understood in a different level. There is less to be known when it comes to the cyber world, even though it is an ongoing part of what we are today in regards to technology and communication, without it, things become way harder than what they used to be, less simple than what they originally were. Cyber warfare is just the tip of the iceberg on attacks that can cause harm to America and its fundaments that is in relation to the cyber world. Cyber warfare is primarily internet-based issues that associate with politically influenced attacks on information and their systems, those attacks can potentially do things such as deactivate official websites or networks, steal or modify classified data, and debilitate the financial structure, among many other things. The only way to know the full extent is to conduct the research yourself and found out what has been going on with the cyber aspect of the world. In order to expand your knowledge for things cybernetic, there must be a drive to find more because the media will do little to none in providing details of the next cyber-attack or malicious hardware unless it is affecting important corporations or business of the like.

According to Thomas Rid’s (2016) article, “Think Again: Cyberwar,” we have been hearing that “Cyberwar is coming!” for more than two decades. However, even though we experience cyberattacks on a daily basis, to this day none of the threats or attacks has been significant enough to be considered an act of war. Rid’s argument on cyberwar is as of right now “Cyberwar is still more hype than hazard.” (Rid, 2016, p. 1)

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

The branches of the military, for a couple generations, have always been the Army, Navy, Air force, Marine Corps, and the Coast Guard; however, in an ever evolving digital world, the notion that outer space would be the next military front is being rapidly replaced by the idea that cyber space will be the next arms race. The United States has been defending attacks on their infrastructure day after day, night after night, when one hacker on one side of the world sleeps, another takes their place to attempt to compromise the US government. The motives may range from a political ‘hacktivist’ trying to prove a point, to an economic spy, trying to gain a competitive edge on its more upstart rivals, to an attempt to control the United States

The interdependent network of digital and communication infrastructure is referred to as the cyberspace. It includes telecommunication networks, the internet, and computer systems. Cyberspace underpins every facet of our modern society. It provides support for civil infrastructure, U.S. economy, national security and public safety. The term cyberspace can also be used to mean the interactions of people and the virtual information environment. Cyberspace enables the growth of effective and more efficient business processes.