Information Warfare

Daniel Ventre

• Publisher: Wiley-ISTE
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781848216600
• Edition: 2
• eBook ISBN:
  9781119277347
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Information Technology
• Index: Computer Science

Cyberspace is one of the major bases of the economic development of industrialized societies and developing. The dependence of modern society in this technological area is also one of its vulnerabilities. Cyberspace allows new power policy and strategy, broadens the scope of the actors of the conflict by offering to both state and non-state new weapons, new ways of offensive and defensive operations.

This book deals with the concept of "information war", covering its development over the last two decades and seeks to answer the following questions: is the control of the information space really possible remains or she a utopia? What power would confer such control, what are the benefits?

1
The United States

The United States proved the undeniable power of their military with Desert Storm in 1991. Since then, their modern military and combat styles have served as examples to the rest of the world. Of course, the impressive volume of troops deployed to conquer Iraq explained, in part, their victory against an inadequate military. But what people have retained is the new face of war: information is now at the forefront and its “digital” nature clearly provides a new power to its users. Not only could the planet watch the launching of operations in real time, but optimized use of information and communication technologies to help troops, and the coordination and preparation of operations and the carrying out of attacks proved to be, if not the key to victory, at least a major player in not losing. The lessons drawn from this victory raised several questions: was this a new type of war? Should we call it “information age warfare” or “information warfare”? This first chapter is naturally dedicated to the United States, since they have been used as a reference and as an object of observation for the rest of the world. They have also put forward a series of doctrinal texts and innovative concepts in the last 25 years.

1.1. Information warfare in the 1990s

1.1.1. Points of view from security experts

In 1994, in his book Information Warfare Winn Schwartau, security expert and author of many reference publications in the field of information technologies, defined three categories of information warfare:

1. – personal information warfare (called Class 1 information warfare), created through attacks against data involving individuals and privacy: disclosure, corruption and intercepting of personal and confidential data (medical, banking and communications data). These attacks aimed at recreating or modifying the electronic picture of an individual by illicit means, or simply by using available open-source information, can often be simply carried out through technical solutions for standard catalog or Internet sales;
2. – commercial information warfare (called Class 2 information warfare) occurs through industrial espionage, broadcasting false information about competitors over the Internet. The new international order is filled with tens of thousands of ex-spies looking for work where they can offer their expertise;
3. – global information warfare (called Class 3 information warfare) aimed at industries, political spheres of influence, global economic forces, countries, critical and sensitive national information systems. The objective is to disrupt a country by damaging systems including energy, communications and transport. It is the act of using technology against technology, of secrets and stealing secrets, turning information against its owner, of prohibiting an enemy from using its own technologies and information. It is the ultimate form of conflict in cyberspace occurring through the global network. This class of information warfare generates chaos.

According to Winn Schwartau¹, real information warfare uses information and information systems as a weapon against its targets: information and information systems. This definition eliminates kinetic weapons (for example bombs and bullets). Information warfare can attack people, organizations or countries (or spheres of influence) via a wide range of techniques, such as breach of confidentiality, attacks against integrity, psychological operations and misinformation.

Information warfare is therefore not limited to the military sphere: it can be carried out against civil infrastructures, constituting a new facet of war where the target can be the national economic security of an enemy. On the other hand, methods for carrying out a war are not a military monopoly. A small group of antagonists can launch an information warfare offensive remotely, while comfortably seated in front of a computer and completely anonymous. A group of hackers could choose to declare war against a country, independently from any control of State power.

For Al Campen², U.S. Air Force Colonel, one of the main criteria for defining information warfare is what is different from the past; this difference involves dependence on a vulnerable technology (information technology). Al Campen³ limits the field of information warfare to information (data) in its digital form and to the software and hardware responsible for its creation, modification, storage, processing and distribution. From this point of view, psychological operations⁴ consisting of scattering leaflets over populations are not information warfare operations; public broadcasting and electronic manipulation of television images, however, are part of information warfare. The physical destruction of telecommunications devices is not information warfare, but disrupting or paralyzing communication with the help of a virus is.

For James F. Dunningan⁵, information warfare is attacking and defending the capability of transmitting information⁶.

For Fred Cohen, information technology security expert and inventor of the concept of the “computer virus”⁷, information warfare is a conflict in which information or information technology is the weapon, target, objective or method⁸.

Martin C. Libicki⁹ defines information warfare as a series of activities triggered by the need to modify information flows going to the other party, while protecting our own; such activities include physical attack, radio-electronic attack, attacks on systems and sensors, cryptography, attacks against computers, and psychological operations. His definition is not limited to military information warfare. In 1995, Libicki wondered about the nature of this new concept: was it a new form of war, a new art, or the revisited version of an older form of war? A new form of conflict that would exist because of the global information infrastructure, or an old form that would find new life with the information age? Is information warfare a field by itself? In order to attempt to define the parameters of this concept, Libicki identifies seven major components:

1. – command and control warfare (C2);
2. – intelligence warfare;
3. – electronic warfare;
4. – psychological operations;
5. – hacker warfare (software attacks against information systems);
6. – economic information warfare (through the control of commercial information);
7. – cyber warfare (i.e. virtual battles).

Some aspects of information warfare are as old as time: attempting to strike at the head of the enemy (C2 war), carrying out all sorts of deceptions (deceiving, abusing and misleading the enemy), and psychological operations. On the other hand, hacker warfare and cyber warfare are completely new methods linked to the revolution of information and communications technologies.

For Larry Merritt¹⁰, technical director for the Air Force Information Warfare Center (AFIWC), information warfare includes all actions undertaken to exploit or affect the capacity of an adversary to acquire a realistic image of the battlefield or...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Title
• Copyright
• Introduction
• 1 The United States
• 2 China
• 3 Russia
• 4 Concepts and Theories: Discussions
• Conclusion
• Index
• End User License Agreement