Strategic Warfare in Cyberspace

Citation

Calvert, P. (2002), "Strategic Warfare in Cyberspace", The Electronic Library, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 58-62. https://doi.org/10.1108/el.2002.20.1.58.6

Events in the second half of 2001 should have convinced any thinking citizen of the free world that there are those who wish to destroy our freedoms and who will use absolutely any means to achieve that end. But perhaps too few people working with information systems will have realised the strategic value of those systems, and could be unaware that they could be the targets of overt and covert attacks.

Rattray begins by defining information warfare and distinguishing it from other types of information competition, such as financial crime and economic espionage. He then develops a conceptual framework for the conduct of strategic warfare in general and information warfare in particular. In doing so he draws upon all the noted writers in the field such as Sun Tzu, von Clausewitz, and modern thinkers such as Liddell‐Hart and even the Tofflers. He describes the twentieth‐century failure to appreciate the limits of strategic air bombardment in order to emphasise the crucial role of information warfare in any modern conflict. Information warfare as a separate conflict emerged in the 1990s once the dependency of the USA upon information systems had been fully appreciated. Attacks on information systems could bring the economy to its knees and prevent any adequate military response, so naturally the emphasis in this book is on building up defences against hostile attacks on information systems. It is apparent that if teenage hackers can break their way into so‐called secure systems, then a determined enemy will be able to do so. Knowledge about offensive information warfare thinking is very limited, so this book contains very little about that topic. The Gulf War has been labelled the first “information war”, although the use of the term “information warfare” for computer‐assisted attack by conventional forces does not quite square with Rattray’s definition.

Rattray is the Commander of the 23rd Information Operations Squadron responsible for US Air Force information warfare tactics and target development. He is to be applauded for such a thorough and balanced text, which is thoroughly referenced and indexed. Although not mainstream information management material, the topic is currently of huge interest and the people who will want to read this book will come from all disciplines. Library copies will be essential in almost all organizations.