Foundations and Strategic Context

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• Definitions, concepts, scope, and principles of cyber warfare
• Cyber warfare doctrine, international law, rules of engagement, ethical considerations, governance, and national policies
• Risk management frameworks, strategic planning, capability building, and resource allocation.
• Translation of warfare principles into digital conflict, strategic alignment, and operational execution maps directly onto the definitions, doctrine, and strategic planning.

Cyber Warfare includes techniques, tactics and procedures which may be involved in a cyber war and does not imply scale, protraction or violence which are typically associated with the term “war”. Cyber warfare can present a multitude of threats towards a nation. At the most basic level, cyber attacks can be used to support traditional warfare. For example, tampering with the operation of air defenses via cyber means in order to facilitate an air attack. Aside from these hard threats, cyber warfare can also contribute towards much softer threats such as espionage and propaganda.

Definitions, concepts, scope, and principles of cyber warfare

Cyber warfare doctrine, international law, rules of engagement, ethical considerations, governance, and national policies

Risk management frameworks, strategic planning, capability building, and resource allocation.

The large decentralization and scale of cyberspace makes it extremely difficult to direct from a policy perspective. Cyber weapons could not only be defensive but also be offensive and non-state actors can play as large a part in the cyberwar space as state actors, which leads to dangerous, sometimes disastrous, consequences. Small groups of highly skilled malware developers are able to as effectively impact global politics and cyber warfare as large governmental agencies. A major aspect of this ability lies in the willingness of these groups to share their exploits and developments on the web as a form of arms proliferation. This allows lesser hackers to become more proficient in creating the large scale attacks that once only a small handful were skillful enough to manage. In addition, thriving black markets for these kinds of cyber weapons are buying and selling these cyber capabilities to the highest bidder without regard for consequences.

In the 21st century, nations, nonstate actors, and individuals have a new avenue to engage in conflict. The development of the Internet has had many unforeseen effects on human society, enabling massive changes in communications, commerce, and conflict. So far, the Internet has not fundamentally changed human nature; it has only allowed for a new means of engaging in normal human behavior, includ- ing some of the worst human activities. Thus, it is unsurprising that humans have chosen to continue their criminal, espionage, sabotage, and warfare activities in the new cyber domain.

Cyber space is definitely not the same as the physical realm, and using it as a means of conflict does not always follow the same approaches used in the physical world. In some ways, warfare in the cyber domain is less terrifying than conflict on land, at sea, or in the air, in part because, to date, no humans have been killed by a cyber attack. Currently, cyber activities tend to be an enabling mechanism supporting conflict in other domains, rather than being an entirely separate vec- tor for violence. However, as more devices are connected and societies become more dependent upon cyber networks, the possibilities for causing harm grow in proportion. Further, because the Internet is by definition an international network that does not halt at national borders, it blurs the line between domestic and global activities, pushing past the assumed limitations of domestic and international law. Because a nation may choose to respond to a cyber attack by retaliating in the physical domain, cyber warfare offers a certain potential for crossover effects. Ulti- mately, whether an attack is perceived as an irritant or an act of war will largely depend on the preferences, motivations, and capabilities of the victim more than the intentions of the actor.

The cyber domain has special characteristics that make it a unique arena for human conflict. Unlike the physical domains (land, sea, air, and space), the cyber domain is entirely artificial, and it remains an evolving platform. Although cer- tain behaviors in cyber space are governed by the limits of what can be performed within a computer network, it is unclear whether other forms of government truly apply to the Internet. Certainly, the establishment of computer networks has challenged many assumptions regarding the limits of legal and ethical behavior. Because the Internet has outgrown all projections for both its utility and its dan- gers, it is impossible to predict how it will develop in even the near future, much less over the remainder of the 21st century.