RealSecurity

Last week Gen. Alexander, head of the US Cyber Command and NSA, spoke at the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association's LandWarNet conference in Tampa, FL about US cyber threats, noting that the DoD's 7M computers on 1500 networks are probed 250,000 per hour by more than a 140 foreign spy organizations seeking to infiltrate US networks.

In part 1 I provided a short recap on the topic of cyberwar and gave some basic perspectives of how military tactics have changed to accommodate different enemies and environments in history. Most importantly the integration of the enemy making it difficult to distinguish friend from foe and the fact that status can change without warning, what we currently see with insurgents and reflective of the cyber theater of war. Another point I wanted to hit home with you is the arsenal of military weapons we have at our disposal have been, in some cases, rendered moot.

Cyberwar will be fought in the ether, and as discussed, a more appropriate expression of this is a "cyber theater of war". As with many new things, we attempt to take what works today and apply to what is emerging. A very natural human reaction; use what you have and "don't reinvent the wheel" are common. However, in the domain of cyberwar the application of traditional military strategy will not entirely work and usher in new theories of war that will ultimately influence 21st century - and beyond – warfare tactics in both the physical and cyber worlds.

At this point in this series of posts about cyberwar (see previous postings Cyberwar and Weaponization of Cyberspace) I want to touch on cyberwar theory and talk about the physical manifestations of cyberwar.

There are a number of folks in the security industry that have downplayed the realities of cyberwar. In some circles the conversation of cyberwar will elicit some interesting reactions and many tend to deny its potency relative to traditional warfare and traditional weapons. Moreover, many begin to blur the lines between cyberwar, cyberterrorism, and other cyberattack scenarios confusing the topic. In virtually every conversation of this nature I’m the one that stands out as the lone voice saying they’re not only wrong, but woefully underestimating the situation.

You can’t pick up a paper, read a news article, or scan a blog without something about Cyberwar in there somewhere. Moreover, there are a number of books surfacing and, conservatively speaking, a great deal of activity in the government sector concerning cyberwar. This will be the first of several posts I’m planning on this topic. I want to talk about war, the cyber element, what’s happening today and things we can expect, what governments are up to, the physical realities of cyber war, and most importantly, the weaponization of cyberspace.