Cyber War: The Dual-Status Commander (DSC)

The most recents detections of how cyber warfare is inevitably coming was the accusations of Russia hacking the the Democratic National Committee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email’s releasing damaging evidence against them which ultimately lead to Donald Trump being named the President of The United States (Diamond, 2016). The effects of cyber warfare have leaked over in to televise series, forming shows such as CSI cyber, and the gaming world, Call Of Duty Infinite Warfare. Neglect regarding cyber security can: undermine the reputation of both the government and elected officials; force unacceptable expenditures associated with the cost of cleaning up after security breaches; cripple governments' abilities to respond to a wide variety of homeland security emergency situations or recover from natural or man-made threats; and disable elected officials' ability to govern (Lohrmann, 2010). Classified information such as overseas operators and attacks, missile locations, response plans and weaknesses, and much more cripples America’s ability to defend itself from enemies both foreign and domestic. To combat cyber terrorism is the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, or CISA. In an article titled “Why Cybersecurity Information Sharing Is A Positive Step for Online Security” it is discussed that under CISA, the Department of Homeland security will have more responsibility for domestic cybersecurity. CISA’s fundamental purpose is to better enable cybersecurity information to be shared between the private and public sectors (2016). The sharing of threat information between public and private sectors can give the the United States a head start by allowing them to share information rapidly and more often to combat enemy threats while still providing safety for privacy and civil

Pfleeger, S. Pfleeger, and Margulies (2015) outline possible examples of cyber warfare between Canada and China (p. 844). According to Pfleeger, S. Pfleeger, and Margulies (2015), “the Canadian government revealed that several of its national departments had been victims of a cyber attack…” (p. 844). Eventually, the attack was unofficially traced to a computer in China (p. 844). Cyber warfare can be used negatively and positively. It is evident that China was seeking to gain protected information form Canada. Although a purpose of cyber warfare, it is not a conventional way of obtaining information. Additionally, cyber warfare can be used to collect intelligence on an enemy. Anyone seeking to gather intelligence on another individual or group can launch a cyber attack that gains access to protected files. This could be used to help future militant operations or expose critical information. Lastly, cyber warfare can be used to test systems internally. Acting with no malicious intent, “insiders” can utilizing cyber warfare tactics to attack their own cyber security barriers in order to test the strength of their systems. Seeking to expose the vulnerabilities in a system that contains important assets without actually harming the assets provides the system a diagnosis of what needs to be strengths and fixed. Identifying the problem or threats before an actual attack can ultimately save the protected

In “Cyber war is Already Upon Us” by John Arquilla. Arquilla argues that “cyber war has arrived” and there needs to be focus on what can be done to control it (Arquilla 4). Arquilla provides examples of cyber attacks that he considers to be instances of cyber war to argue his point. To be considered an act of war, an attack must be potentially violent, purposeful, and political (Lecture 20. Slide 5). Many of the attacks that Arquilla refers to were purposeful and political, making them comparable to specific battles within a war. However, they should not be classified as entire wars by themselves because traditionally war is defined as a period of ongoing conflict and not one specific attack. While cyber war is a possibility, nothing in

In order to properly answer the question posed we must first define what cyber-war and cyber-terrorism are. The Oxford Dictionaries defines cyber-war as “The use of computer technology to disrupt the activities of a state or organization, especially the deliberate attacking of communication systems by another state or organization:” Although there is no dictionary definition of cyber-terrorism, The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has defined it as “the use of computer network tools to shut down critical national infrastructures (e.g., energy, transportation, government operations) or to coerce or intimidate a government or civilian population.” The author defines cyber terror as “the intimidation of civilian enterprise through the use of high technology to bring about political, religious, or ideological aims, actions that result in disabling or deleting critical infrastructure data or information.”

While actively engaged in conflict, we are members of a very complex, unstable, and ever-changing environment. Scholars like Sun-Tzu and Clausewitz have both studied warfare extensively, and approach it from two very different angles. These approaches provide two main schools of thought when considering warfare and should be understood so that a place may be found for cyber-warfare. Sun Tzu’s (2013) main theme contends that weapons

Contrasting the IRA, for the deployment of state military resources or Federal military forces for disaster response must be activated through the formal process. Therefore, coordination between state and/or Federal military planners and liaison officers is necessary to ensure “when emergency managers identify a credible disaster scenario that would overwhelm their individual agencies” a military emergency support function (ESF) request is developed. The ESF as discussed in the last section “designated military authority during DSCA operations”11. Previously, throughout the sections of the paper there has been reference to declaration or disaster and military action following. To conclude this section a deeper examination of both of these will ensue. Through state level response the DSCA Handbook Section 109, Title 32 indicates that once mobilized at the state level, forces conduct all missions in accordance with the needs of the state and within the guidelines of state laws and statutes . Mobilizations of these resources are done through State Active Duty declaration of the National Guard by the respective Governor of the state. Similarly, the federal military forces only are used for disaster response if either approved by the Secretary of Defense or through

Interestingly, numerous dialogs of cyber warfare and digital conflicts concentrate chiefly on the specialized parts of machines, frameworks, and data but they forget to incorporate the damage that can be done by

Cyber warfare is the new warfare domain. Understanding how to morally utilize the newfound capabilities will assist the United States to maintain military dominance as well as mitigate possible immoral tragedies. Cyber warfare and war envelops a vast array of topics available for discussion. Therefore, the topics of interest within cyber warfare will be confined to attacks on electrical grids and water treatment plants. War will be defined as in the constitution, a war that is declared by the U.S. congress or a conflict the President of the United States deems

The United States’ planning, support, and execution for complex catastrophe over the past 20-years continues to evolve and improve through lesser, but as important, catastrophes. One of the first evolutions was the creation of a cabinet level secretary to head the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) consolidated the responsibly of securing the United States in to one agency. This allows DOD to interact with a strategic level peer on support rendered during a complex and non-complex catastrophe event. Unlike a non-complex catastrophe a complex catastrophe would rapidly overwhelm local authorities and well as National Guard assets. This requires the assistance of Title 10 forces to and the capacity it brings to a national level catastrophe.

Super powers, as well as most of the developed world, believed the planet was continually on the verge of nuclear Armageddon, but the Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. This collapse left the United States as the sole super power and in the role of the world police. Since the United States was left as the most powerful country in the world, it assumed the responsibility of de-escalating conflicts and promoting global peace and security: a role the United States continues to play in order to maintain access and to protect its global interests. As the world was learning the rules of post-Cold War warfare, events took a sharp turn into asymmetric warfare, a type of warfare we have been engaged in since the mid-2000s, and a type of warfare that continues to challenge the free world today. With adversaries closing the gap in technology and engaging non-state actors, these parameters are definitely contributing towards limited war. Also, in this age of information and technology, it would be difficult to gain public support for a total war since it would constitute unnecessary destruction and needless loss of life. Instead, adversaries engage in cyber war with the aim of crippling and delaying technological advances as well as disrupting services for the

For thousands of years warfare remained relatively unchanged. While the tactics and weapons have changed as new methods of combat evolved, men and women or their weapons still had to meet at the same time and place in order to attack, defend, surrender or conquer. However, the advent of the of the internet has created a new realm of combat in which armies can remotely conduct surveillance, reconnaissance, espionage, and attacks from an ambiguous and space-less digital environment. Both state and non-state actors have already embraced this new realm and utilized both legal and illegal means to further facilitate their interests. What complicates cyber security further is as states attempt to protect themselves from cyber-warfare, private

A lot of opinions and meanings has been given to the word “Cyberterrorism”. Some of these meanings and definitions varies. In this light, Gordon and Ford (2003) are concerned that when 10 people define cyberterrorism and nine of the given answers are different, and these 10 people represent different government agencies tasked with safeguarding national assets and infrastructure, then it becomes a critical issue.

Cyber warfare is a battle without causalities, a war waged only by written words, fought digitally by those who are bent at disrupting the infrastructure of a nation built on sweat, labor and concrete. Digital battles that are being fought not for money, not for a simple website defacement proclaiming you are the most ‘l33t hax0r on the interwebs’. One of the most major, yet under reported example of this; a lowly worm named Stuxnet. A worm, by the most mundane of definitions, is a self-replicating program, usually malicious, and whose

The difference in the perceptions of cyber attack is rather complicating because it makes the nature of the operative term “cyber” all the more ambiguous, causing serious vagueness in any use-of-force or armed attack analysis. This becomes particularly problematic when applying any leading models on the assessment of use of force because these models employ instrumentality, target and effects as the basis for analysis. Moreover, there must be an understanding of what exactly is a cyber attack before discussing whether it falls under the use of force notion or not because it will not only affect the value and

One of the first cyber-attacks was the Morris worm in the year 1988. It had affected the world cyber infrastructure. This worm utilized the weak areas of UNIX system Noun1. This worm has replicated adversely and slowed down the computers in all of the US and made them unusable. Cyber warfare has become a societal issue now. Though the roots of cyber warfare aimed at military areas primarily, it extended its effects to non-military areas too. The information infrastructure based companies have become victimized due to abundant availability of cheap cyber weapons over internet. This resulted in economic instability. Libicki classified information warfare into seven categories. They are intelligence based warfare, economic