While wars continue to rage in the middle east and tensions build over increasingly hostile Russian military activity, a silent and often forgotten battle is being waged on a battlefield unable to be seen. This battlefield is located in cyberspace and may determine and shape the future of all prospective battles and wars to come. In this paper, we will look at two separate countries, Belgium, and Russia, and examine what their cyber strategies are pertaining to warfare and defense or security, and current capabilities of these countries regarding cyber-attacks or warfare. We will also be looking at the potential risks these countries present to the United States and the best was the United States can defend against these potential or emerging threats.
First, let us examine Belgium’s current cyber strategy. Belgium is primarily focused on defensive with almost no offensive capabilities or intent being listed throughout the 18-page document. The only mention of any possible offensive operations is the “right to self-defense”, but even this has multiple constraints on it to include, but limited to, initial attacker, the location, the necessity to respond, the principle of proportionality. They also put a limit on the level of authorized retaliation to the following: “The reaction must be in proportion to the extent of the attack and must be aimed at stopping it (ACOS STRAT, 2014).”
From a defensive perspective, Belgium has set some very high standards and goals with an
With cyber war, nations are able to skip the battlefield. Gone are the days where troops line up across from each other hoping to do damage to the other. Clarke explains that people, industries, governments, companies and organizations can be possible targets and are vulnerable to these attacks. Keeping that in mind should help these targets become defensive minded and shield off attacks before they happen. As we all know, the prevention is better than the
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium is a sovereign state in Western Europe. Belgium is one of 28 members of NATO, which is based in Brussels, Belgium. They are basically all allies, when a country attacks a member everyone else helps defend that country. Belgium is also a founder of the European Union. It has a Constitutional Monarchy is a type of government in which governing powers of the monarch are restricted by a constitution. The closest allies to Iceland are Norway, Canada and the United States.
Today however, a new type of warfare has emerged and occurs when outside entities conduct an attack on a power grid, network, or both with the intent of causing damage. This type of warfare is called cyber warfare. In the United States computers control everything. It is no secret that hostile countries and terrorist organizations are cognizant and they know our economy, security, and infrastructure can be crippled by a successful cyber-attack. Examples of potential targets for cyber terrorists include military bases, water systems, banking facilities, air traffic control centers and power plants. Even the Commander in Chief, President Obama has stated the threat of a cyber war is real and we must prepare for it and increase our security measures. First, this paper will discuss cyberterrorism and cyber-attacks as they pose a direct threat to national security and the economy. Then, we will review cyber-attacks against the U.S. from China, Iran, and Russia along with the impact and possible ramifications from those attacks. Finally, this paper discusses U.S. strategies to minimize the impact of cyber-attacks.
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
By using the term ill prepared, I aim to convey that the United States is not equipped with enough protection to prevent every possible instance of the threat of cyberwarfare from occurring. I propose we are not where our nation should be in terms of dealing with all actual occurrences of the threat of cyberwarfare, were it to be fully realized. This can be carried over into our response capability to any such attack, which may manifest in many forms. For example, our response against perpetrators and those who aid or comfort
Clarke and Knake use a mixed method research approach in Cyber War to support their hypothesis that offensive prowess is meaningless without solid defense in cyberspace, and that the United States need immediately fix our defensive cyber shortfalls, or face apocalyptic doom. Specifically, the authors define ‘cyber war’ as “actions by a nation state to penetrate another nation’s computers or networks for the purposes of causing damage or disruption.” This infers that they are really talking about ‘warfare’ and
Cyber threats and attacks are becoming more common, sophisticated and damaging. NATO and its Allies rely on strong and resilient cyber defenses to fulfil the Alliance’s core tasks of collective defense, crisis management and cooperative security. NATO affirms international law applies in cyberspace
Cyberspace – Joint Forces will secure the ‘.mil’ domain, requiring a resilient (DoD) cyberspace architecture that employs a combination of detection, deterrence, denial, and multi-layered defense. We will improve our cyberspace capabilities so they can often achieve significant and proportionate effects with less cost and lower collateral impact (p. 19).
Belgium is a Socialist Country located in Western Europe. It is located bordering the North Sea between France and Netherlands. Belgium is roughly the size of the State of Maryland. Belgium has a population of 11 Million people with a population growth rate of 0.73%. The life expectancy of a citizen is 81 years with birth rate of 11.1 per 1000 citizens and a death rate of 9.7 per 1000 citizens. The primary spoken languages are German, French and Dutch. The currency is Euros and the country is a member of the European Union (CenrtalIntelligenceAgency). The current exchange
Belgium scores very high in investment freedom, property rights, monetary freedom, and business freedom and is above the world average in eight areas. A member of the European Union, it has a standardized monetary policy and relatively low inflation despite some government distortion in the agricultural sector. Its transparent rule of law protects property and encourages
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
There exist three types of cyber war. ITC regulatory framework, criminal law, and Law of Armed Conflict. The last one the Law of Armed Conflicts was applied to the Georgian case. This type of war was applied to Russia-Georgian conflict because of the actual hostile situation between two states that was led to the escalation and use of armed forces and dispute. Russia claims that its only intention was to “defend the lives and dignity of its citizens”, in South Ossetia and Georgia.Russia describes its action as a peacekeeping operation, but from international perspective LOAC (Law of Armed Conflicts) is exactly applied to the case.
The branches of the military, for a couple generations, have always been the Army, Navy, Air force, Marine Corps, and the Coast Guard; however, in an ever evolving digital world, the notion that outer space would be the next military front is being rapidly replaced by the idea that cyber space will be the next arms race. The United States has been defending attacks on their infrastructure day after day, night after night, when one hacker on one side of the world sleeps, another takes their place to attempt to compromise the US government. The motives may range from a political ‘hacktivist’ trying to prove a point, to an economic spy, trying to gain a competitive edge on its more upstart rivals, to an attempt to control the United States
Belgium is a small country just west of France with a membership to the EU since its beginning. The Physiography of Belgium is very much the same throughout its 1,385 km of land, consisting mainly of flat lowlands with a coastal plain in the northwest of it just touching the North Sea, though there is a series of wooden plateaus called the Ardennes covering the Belgian regions of Luxembourg, Namur, and Liège. The land has a Temperate Midlatitude/ Marine West Coast climate, which means that it has warm, moist summers and cool (but not cold winters).
Belgium is a country located in Western Europe, occupying 30 528 square kilometers of rich, fertile land and home to approximately 11 million people. Belgium’s economy is modern, open and based on private firms. Belgium is one of the founders of the EU (European Union) and hosts its headquarters. It also hosts other major international organisations such as NATO.