On the Use of Offensive Cyber Capabilities - Belfer Center for ...

effectively disabled uranium enrichment until it was detected five months later. 9In one generation, the “weapons” of cyberspace developed at a pace orders ofmagnitude faster than for any other battlespace in history.This evolution also corresponds with a staggering growth in connectivity.In 1981, Arpanet boasted 213 hosts. 10 By 2010, the Internet linked almost 1billion. 11 And although airspace covers the entire globe, even an aircraft usingscramjet technology would require over an hour to travel halfway around theworld. 12 Network communications, including those required for cyberoperations, can make the same trip in under a second. 13 Not only has the cyberdomain expanded at astronomical rates, it has done so while creating atechnological framework whose speed has no equivalent in the physical realm.For many of these reasons, cyber policy is struggling to keep pace.Governments have recognized the potentially significant vulnerabilities in (andopportunities of) cyberspace, and they have rushed to understand the nature ofthis new, man-made battlespace – a battlespace, one should not forget, that isalso a market, a gathering place, a social club, a business tool, and much more.While the particular technology comprising the cyber domain may change, itseems likely that interconnected and interoperable communications technologieswill persist and conflicts will take place within this domain for the foreseeablefuture.9 (Zetter, 2011)10 (History of the Internet)11 (Internet Systems Consortium, 2012)12 This figure of course assumes the existence of a tactical scramjet aircraft, instantaneousacceleration to max speed, instantaneous deceleration and no external limitations (such as fuel).For information on scramjet technology, see (Scramjet)13 This figure is derived from the transmission speed of fiber optic cables of approximately124,000 miles per second.9