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What is Cyber Security Cyber War Cyber Power?. Brandon Valeriano Cardiff University drbvaler@gmail.com. Cyberspace. Cyber is simply the prefix that means computer or digital interactions. It is the term we have
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What is Cyber SecurityCyber WarCyber Power? Brandon Valeriano Cardiff University drbvaler@gmail.com
Cyberspace • Cyber is simply the prefix that means computer or digital interactions. It is the term we have • Clarke and Knake (2010:70) “all of the computer networks in the world and everything they connect and control.” • “The cyber domain includes the Internet of networked computers but also intranets, cellular technologies, fiber-optic cables, and space-based communications. Cyberspace has a physical infrastructure layer that follows the economic laws of rival resources and the political laws of sovereign justification and control” (Nye 2011: 19). • Singer and Friedman (2014: 14) note, “cyberspace may be global, but it is not ‘stateless’ or a ‘global commons’, both terms frequently used in government and media.” There is very little anarchy in cyberspace because it remains the domain of states and is government by institutions and networks, such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
Internet Fragile Nature • Personal connection to technology • Speed at which internet has become ubiquitous. • Dipert (2010: 402) makes the analogy that surfing in cyberspace is like swimming in a dirty pool. • “As modern society leans ever more heavily on the Internet for commerce, communications and the management of its vital infrastructures, its fragility becomes an ever greater concern.” Mark Bowden, Los Angeles Times, 10/23/2011
Cyber Security • Cyber Security is the program of study that reflects on the nature of cyber war, cyber terrorism, cyber crime, and cyber repression. • Security is consideration of safety in response to threats. Offensive, defensive, or neutral. • Protection of networks and digital infrastructure. • “Our daily life, economic vitality, and national security depend on a stable, safe, and resilient cyberspace. We rely on this vast array of networks to communicate and travel, power our homes, run our economy, and provide government services.” (DHS.Gov)
Cyber War • War is sustained intergroup violence that usually results in the deliberate infliction of death and injury on the opposing side. • Clark and Knake (2010: 6) define cyber war “as actions by nation-states to penetrate another nation’s computers or networks for the purposes of causing damage or disruption.” • Rid (2013: 12) counters this idea by arguing that “most cyber attacks are not violent and cannot sensibly be understood as a form of violent action.” • Rid’s (2011: 139) modification of the notion of cyber war such that “violence inflicted through computer code is indirect and unqualified” is important. • “A more useful definition of cyber war is hostile actions in cyberspace that have effects that amplify or are equivalent to major kinetic violence” (Nye 2011: 20-21).
Cyber Conflict • Lindsay (2013: 372) argues that cyber warfare “employs computer network attacks as a use of force to disrupt an opponent’s physical infrastructure for political gain.” • Cyber is a tactic, not a form of complete warfare. It is a tool in the arsenal of diplomacy and international interactions just as other forms of threats, and offensive and defensive actions in the toolbox of a state’s arsenal of power. • We must be clear that cyber conflict remains in the realm of conflict, which is a disagreement on preferred outcomes.
Cyber Conflict • We define cyber conflict as the use of computational technologies in military interactions or diplomatic affairs in the realm of the international system. • By cyber conflict we mean direct attacks in cyberspace and not attacks in the course of war aimed at military units, drones, or ships. We are speaking of cyber conflict as a foreign policy tactic used by states against other states. • Our definition is expansive and can include non-state actor cyber operations
Fifth Domain? • Land, Sea, Air • Space • Cyber • Nye (2010: 3) notes that the overlap between the physical and virtual aspect of cyberspace are where the physical “follows the economic laws of rival resources and increasing marginal costs, and the political laws of sovereign jurisdiction and control.”
Cyber Power • Power is the ability to influence combined with capabilities, situation, and willingness. • Nye (2010: 3) notes, “power depends on context and cyber power depends on the resources that characterize the domain of cyberspace.
Cyber Weapons • Weapons are, as Rid (2013: 36) notes, “instruments of harm.” Cyber weapons obviously vary by type, distinction, usage, and application. • Website defacements or vandalism • Distributed denial of service method (DDoS) • Intrusions, which include Trojans and trapdoors or backdoors • Infiltrations. A) Logic bombs B) Viruses C) Worms (ability to propagate themselves) D) Packet sniffers E) Keystroke logging • Dipert (2010: 391) notes, they are weapons “whose effectiveness will likely rapidly diminish.” One shot • Rowe (2008) adds that cyber weapons are expensive.