Cyberwarfare

Cyberwarfare refers to politically motivated hacking to conduct sabotage and espionage. It is a form of information warfare sometimes seen as analogous to conventional warfare although this analogy is controversial for both its accuracy and its political motivation.

Background Information

Since it originated, cyberwarfare has been defined in many ways. Some of these definitions include:

"actions by a nation-state to penetrate another nation's computers or networks for the purposes of causing damage or disruption"

"The fifth domain of warfare"

Cyberwarfare has transformed into a very common way to attack other nations in war time today. The U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, states that "as a doctrinal matter, the Pentagon has formally recognized cyberspace as a new domain in warfare, which has become critical to military operations as land, sea, air, and space." In May 2010, the Pentagon set up its new U.S. Cyber Command, to defend American military networks and attack other countries' systems. Other nations are quickly following in the United States footsteps to set up national cyber security.

In 2009, President Obama warned that cyber intruders have probed the United States electrical grids.

Methods

Espionage

Espionage is the act of obtaining sensitive information from someone for an advantage illegally exploiting said persons or groups, often over the internet. When the opposition finds breaches in the security, they can easily obtain and alter classified information from anywhere on the globe.

Sabotage

The United States military is among the most technologically advanced militaries in the world. Many operations incorporate computers and satellites, normally for some type of communication. These operations are the most vulnerable and susceptible to breaching. Communications can be intercepted by enemies, and enemies can replace messages, with orders of their own. Security breaches have gone far beyond stolen credit card information, and reached the electric power grids, and even the stock market. A recent example of this, was in July 2010, when security experts discovered a malicious software program called Stuxnet that had infiltrated factory computers and had spread around the world. This was considered by The New York Times, to be "the first attack on critical industrial infrastructure that sits at the foundation of modern economies"