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more than 194 million in China. But this is just the effect on society at large.
What has been the effect on various military organizations around the world?
Have they embraced cyber-related issues or avoided them?
The Emergence of the Civilian and Military Cyber Battlefields
Non-state entities (terrorists and criminal agents) use these same
networks and products to conduct their “business.” They seldom use the terms
cyber or information operations, although most civilian agencies and the media
describe their activities as cyber-related. For example the media describes
insurgent activities in Iraq and Israel as part of a virtual or cyberjihad, as
cyberterrorism, or as the beginning of an Interfada. Terrorists and criminals
feed off civilian and military technological advancements and use them to
coordinate and advance their causes. Countering these activities employed by
insurgents has proven most difficult in Iraq.
Computers enable criminal, terrorist, and insurgent capabilities. Cyber
capabilities allow information to be manipulated, stolen, or held hostage, for
example; and they allow criminals, terrorists, and insurgents to conduct guerilla
warfare tactics and illegal or extremist activities online. Cyber capabilities have
introduced identify theft, financial fraud, and cyber money laundering into our
lives. This has changed the subjective nature of war, adding a social context
unlike any time in history.
Cyber processes work in near-stealth mode. Electrons carry the “threat”
of encryption or manipulation or some other capability, moving silently and
surreptitiously around the world. These packets of electrons use the same
networks and platforms that civilians use to conduct their everyday business.
Today’s criminals, terrorists, and insurgents use their computer skills and offthe-shelf
cyber purchases (equipment ranging from frequency intercept devices
to mini-spy cameras) to conduct activities that cast cyber silhouettes of
influence and agitation over the much more lethal and powerful information
operations of modern armies. The title for this book, Cyber Silhouettes, was
chosen for this reason.
The cyber silhouettes cast by insurgents are not the traditional military
ones of precision, speed, and efficiency. Instead these silhouettes are those of
manipulation, perception, recruitment, mobilization, fear, and intimidation,
among others. Quite often militaries and their associated intelligence agencies,
while able to comprehend the outline of these silhouettes, have no arrow in the
quiver that is flexible enough to target, eliminate, or control them. Their arrows
were designed for other purposes such as the nation-state threat of the past.
That is, a cyber threat enhances activities that an armed force is not prepared to
handle at this time.
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