Introduction to Cyber-Warfare - Proiect SEMPER FIDELIS

2 1. CYBER WARFARE: HERE AND NOWWhat is Cyber Warfare? Is it a credible threat? How should we study it? Before we start topresent some case studies, we felt these questions need to be addressed first. Granted, ouranswers to these questions are only tentative: cyber warfare is and will be evolving. In thischapter, we attempt to define cyber war, discuss why it is important, and outline some techniquesthat can help us study it. We also address the issue of attribution and examine an informationassurance-based framework that helps to better grasp some of the more technical issues.WHAT IS CYBER WAR?Many have sought to answer this question during the last decade as the Internet emergedas a new battlefield in conflict. It is tempting to simply define cyber war as when a nation stateengages in cyber operations. However, a definition that restricts actions to a nation state islikely incomplete. As we note throughout the book, extra governmental organizations—fromthe more traditional actors such as Hamas and Hezbollah to newer organizations such asAnonymous and LulzSec—continue to play an increased role in conflict. However, inextending the range of actors in cyber warfare beyond nation states, where do we drawthe line? It would not make sense to include every two-bit criminal sending out spam e-mailsand high-school kids conducting Web defacements as cyber warriors. On the other hand, wecannot make an arbitrary decision based on the size of the organization conducting theattacks. This book is littered with examples of major cyber operations conducted by a handfulof individuals.Clearly, cyber war is difficult to pin down with a definition. In this book, we first takeon Clausewitz’s definition of war: “an extension of policy (or politics) by other means.” 1Based hereon, we can create a corollary for cyber war: “an extension of policy (orpolitics) by actions taken in cyber space.” But we also want to avoid considering everypolitically motivated Web site defacement as an act of cyber war. Perhaps we should also accountfor capability and add the condition that the actions pose a “serious threat” to nationalsecurity. However, we still cannot account for cases in which a state uses cyber operationsagainst nonstate actors. Eventually, we resolved to use the following definition of cyber war:Cyber war is an extension of policy by actions taken in cyber space by state or nonstate actors that eitherconstitute a serious threat to a nation’s security or are conducted in response to a perceived threat against anation’s security.Most certainly, the debate on what (does not) constitutes cyber war is far from over.However, we found the above-mentioned definition a helpful guidance for this book andthe case studies we present are good illustrations of the current state of cyber war.IS CYBER WAR A CREDIBLE THREAT?With our definition of cyber war, the reader may wonder if it is even possible for a cyberoperation to pose a serious threat to national security. Based on the stories in this book,we (the authors) are convinced that cyber warfare can pose a serious threat to national