For thousands of years warfare remained relatively unchanged. While the tactics and weapons have changed as new methods of combat evolved, men and women or their weapons still had to meet at the same time and place in order to attack, defend, surrender or conquer. However, the advent of the of the internet has created a new realm of combat in which armies can remotely conduct surveillance, reconnaissance, espionage, and attacks from an ambiguous and space-less digital environment. Both state and non-state actors have already embraced this new realm and utilized both legal and illegal means to further facilitate their interests. What complicates cyber security further is as states attempt to protect themselves from cyber-warfare, private and commercial technological methods largely keeps pace with state technological developments, largely removing military advantages created through large militaries. Since the creation and implementation of international networking via the internet, the United States has adopted the technology within the military and government infrastructure. As a result, the United States has opened itself up to a new threat which must be actively addressed in order to protect the national security of the United States. Successful cyber-attacks originating in China, Russia, and the Middle East have already penetrated the United States military’s network infrastructure and leaked sensitive and classified information. While the size and the scope of the information breaches have not yet resulted in a grave threat to the United States, the increase in cyber-threats and cyber-attacks make cyber-warfare one of the most important national security issues facing the United States and the intelligence community. A ca... ... middle of paper ... ...rch Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed March 21, 2011). Lynn III, William J. 2010. "Defending a New Domain." In Foreign Affairs, 97-108. Foreign Affairs, 2010. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed March 21, 2011). Schaap, Arie J. 2009. "Cyber Warfare Operations: Development And Use Under International Law." Air Force Law Review 64, 121-173. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed March 21, 2011). Thomas C. Wingfield, 2000 “The Law of Information Conflict: National Security” Law in Cyberspace 17 (Aegis Research Coqj). Thornburgh, Nathan. “The Invasion of the Chinese Cyberspies - TIME.” http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1098961,00.html. Trias, Eric D., and Bryan M. Bell. 2010. "Cyber This, Cyber That ... So What?." Air & Space Power Journal 24, no. 1: 90-100. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed March 21, 2011).
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.
Although an act of cyberterrorism has yet to occur, officials and scholars continuously study the possibilities of such an attack. As our physical and virtual worlds continue to intertwine the risk of such an event rapidly increases. Everything from our transportation systems to pharmaceutical manufacturing are computer controlled. The closest the world has come to an act of cyberterrorism was in 2000. Known as the Maroochy Shire case in Queensland, Australia was committed by Vitek Boden. Boden was an engineer for Pacific Paradise, a sewage pumping in Australia. He was able to successful hack into a control system modifying the operations and dumping millions of litres of raw sewage into the local waterways. Boden’s motivation was the only reason the act was not classified as cyberterrorism was his motivation. It was personal rather than political or religious in nature (Sharp Parker, 2009). The only reason this wasn’t the first act of cyberterrorism was motivation. As companies invest in upgrading their technological capabilities, they too need to invest in security structure to protect their systems and the public from threats of terrorism. Our government must also decide how to address public safety in regards to cyberterrorism. On September 11th, 2001 America was reminded how vulnerable we are when it comes to acts of terrorism. The sheer complexity and varying design of attacks often makes it very difficult to create a catch-all defense in fighting terrorism. To improve the disruption of terrorist activities by government agencies in the United States many laws needed to be updated to include the latest areas of electronic communications.
With the introduction of the internet being a relatively new phenomenon, the act of cyber espionage is not something that has been properly acknowledged by society. The American Government has done a stand up job of keeping its methods in the shadows and away from the eyes of its people since its documented domestic surveillance began on October 4th, 2001; Twenty three days after the Twin Towers fell President George Bush signed an order to begin a secret domestic eavesdropping operation, an operation which was so sensitive that even many of the country's senior national security officials with the...
USCYBERCOM unifies the command of the cyberspace efforts and units of the United States military. The United States Department of Defense also has outlined the principles that form its cyber defense strategy, building and maintaining ready forces and capabilities to conduct cyberspace operations, defend the DoD information network, secure DoD data, and mitigate risks to DoD missions. Be prepared to defend the U.S. homeland and U.S. vital interests from disruptive or destructive cyberattacks of significant consequence. Build and maintain viable cyber options and plan to use those options to control conflict escalation and to shape the conflict environments at all stages. Build and maintain robust international alliances and partnerships to deter shared threats and increase international security and stability. The five pillars of cyber security, confidentiality, integrity, availability, non-repudiation, and authentication. Protecting information from disclosure to unauthorized individuals, systems or entities, Protect information, systems, and services from unauthorized modification or destruction, Timely, reliable access to data and information services by authorized users, the ability to correlate a recorded action with its originating individual or entity, and the ability to verify the identity of an individual or entity
“The hearts and mind (HAM) theory is identified as winning the hearts and minds of the population which is a technique based on the implementation of the counter-insurgency (COIN) strategy of persuading the population to support the government and reject the insurgents.” The counter-insurgency (COIN) strategy as outlined by President Obama and General Petraeus’s most closely embrace is the heart and minds (HAM) theory. President Obama speech identified the United States strategic approach with Afghanistan in three elements. The three core elements addressed by President Obama during his speech on the strategy in Afghanistan are identified as: 1) utilize the military effort to create conditions for transition, 2) a civilian surge that reinforce positive actions, and 3) an effective partnership with Pakistan.” These elements align with the premise of HAM and the strategy of COIN. Furthermore, in General Petraeus’s COIN strategy he specifically shifts the focus from the enemy and toward the empowerment of the Afghanistan population and its government.
The term “cyber terrorism” refers to the use of the Internet as a medium in which an attack can be launched such as hacking into electrical grids, security systems, and vital information networks. Over the past four decades, cyber terrorists have been using the Internet as an advanced communication tool in which to quickly spread and organize their members and resources. For instance, by using the instantaneous spread of information provided by the Internet, several terrorist’s groups have been able to quickly share information, coordinate attacks, spread propaganda, raise funds, and find new recruits for their cause. Instantaneous and unpredictable, the technological advantages these terrorists have obtained from using the Internet includes
The Strengths and Weaknesses of Joint Warfare Armed with numerous studies, and intensive public hearings, Congress mandated far-reaching changes in DOD organization and responsibilities under the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986. This landmark legislation significantly expanded the authority and responsibility of the chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff. Included in this expanded authority and responsibility was the requirement for the chairman to develop a doctrine for the joint employment of armed forces. As operations Urgent Fury, Just Cause, and Desert Storm have vividly demonstrated, the realities of armed conflict in today's world make the integration of individual service capabilities a matter of success or failure, life or death. Furthermore, the operation Desert One demonstrated the need for a strengthened Joint Warfare Doctrine and the consequent change in Joint Warfare Employment.
Terrorism represents a continuing threat to the United States. It is the most significant threat to our national security. Terrorist attacks have definitely left many concerns about the possibilities of future incidents of terrorism in the United States. Since the events of September 11, 2011, Americans and much of the world are afraid. Americans are at war with terrorism and no longer feel comfortable. A part of this unease feeling has to do with cyber terrorism.
The 20 Enemies of the Internet. 1999. Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. Feb 20, 2001. <http://www.rferl.org/nca/special/enemies.html>.
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...
Technology changes every day, sometimes the events in our life shape what new technology we use. You would have to be living in a hole not know that we are in conflict with Iraq, and this event has changed digital warfare.
Cyber Space Law Right now there is a very interesting war being waged in the court rooms across America. It is a battle for the rights of citizens on the Internet. The Internet is a fairly new medium gaining wide popularity in 1994. Because of its incredible growth in popularity in a very short amount of time it has been hard to regulate. The first act to come out regarding the Internet and Freedom of Speech was PL 99-508 the Electronic Communications and Privacy Act of 1986 . This act consisted of two parts, title I and title II. Title I - Interception of Communications and Related Matters. Basically takes the existing laws and updates them to include computers. Where before it was illegal to intercept private telephone calls, it now says it is illegal to intercept private computer transmissions. It also includes a provision to make it legal to intercept public radio transmissions like it is with public radio programs. It also allows Internet Service Providers to keep a log of who called and their activity on-line to protect themselves. Title II - Stored Wire and Electronic Communications and Transactional Records Access. This provision adds sections to Title 18 of the United States Code (USC). In section 2701 - Unlawful Access to Stored Communications; it makes it a federal offense to hack into a computer system. Actually what it says is that it is not illegal to gain access but once you do gain access, by mistake or intention, it is illegal to continue to access the computer system. This crime is punishable by $5000 or up to six months in jail. Section 2703 of USC Title 18 is the section that instructs Internet Service Providers to keep a back-up record of your activities on-line with a court order from a government entity. Then after the government notifies the individual in question, the material is either used by the agency or is destroyed. Probably the biggest battle yet over the first amendment rights so far has been the Communications Decency Act or CDA. In March 1995 Senator Jim Exon introduces legislation to criminalize online publication of any material deemed "obscene, lascivious, filthy or indecent." This legislation was attached to a larger and popular Telecommunications Reform Bill. The Senate and the House voted to approve the Telecommunications Reform Bill in February 1996.
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 ...
Olender, Michael. “Keeping Pace with Cyber Power, Defense, and Warfare.” Journal of International and Global Studies 6.2 (2015): 55+. Academic OneFile. Web. 5 Oct. 2015.
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.