Download - Foreign Military Studies Office - U.S. Army

The important point to underscore is that cyber-age technologies that
persuade or influence audiences psychologically through information,
disinformation, or deception are ubiquitous and available to anyone on any
continent whether it is a US soldier in a high-tech force or a terrorist in the
desert. Legal organizations and entities have developed most of these
technological devices, but they are available to anyone including religious
zealots, terrorists, dictators, and so on.
But this is only a discussion of the soft side of terrorism—the use of the
media. A growing danger is the terrorist’s slow but steady acquisition of
digitally enhanced, miniaturized technologies. These devices, at the heart of
recent reports on the use of laser devices to blind airline pilots or the Chechen
suicide bombers who sneaked explosives onto two Russian domestic flights
within minutes of one another, will become more prevalent in the next five
years. Terrorists are on the lookout for small, dirty bombs and for biological or
chemical agents that can be dispersed into large population settings. All of
these agents will be much harder to uncover as miniaturized technologies
continue to proliferate.
This description of the issues and uses of cyber technology offered
above explains some of the “cyber silhouettes” that now are part of our lives.
There are an ever-increasing number of cyber-related devices that are being
forced upon us faster than we can comprehend their functioning or, more
importantly, their eventual consequences. However, this is a fact we must
accept and to which we must adapt. The good side is represented by cyber
equipment’s many benefits. In the end we are relying daily on cyber-based
technologies whether it is to help us with mundane tasks or to communicate
with friends and family on the Internet. The bad side comes into play as the
functionality falls into the hands of terrorists or criminals and the purpose
becomes explosive. Another indicator that we do not understand how to
integrate our efforts is the disparity in language and thus focus among civilians,
the federal government, and the military. If the saying is true that “how you
understand something determines what you will do with your day” then we are
all going in different directions.
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