| The Global Freedom Institute |
| America�s Greatest Threat: Information Warfare (page 2) �The age of technological integration and globalization�has realigned the relationship of weapons to war�.Does a single �hacker� attack count as a hostile act or not? Can using financial instruments to destroy a country�s economy be seen as a battle? Did CNN�s broadcast of an exposed corpse of a U.S. soldier in the streets of Mogadishu shake the determination of the Americans to act as the world�s policeman, thereby altering the world�s strategic situation? �When we suddenly realize that all these non-war actions may be the new factors constituting future warfare, we have to come up with a new name for this new form of war: Warfare which transcends all boundaries and limits---in short, unrestricted warfare.� This brings forth the nonmilitary issues dealing with information warfare. Jane�s Intelligence Review came up with a scenario, where an enemy might hack into a system to find a list of American soldiers in the region of attack. Prior to an attack, an enemy might drain the bank accounts of the families of the soldiers, causing the lines of communication to be filled with calls and emails to soldiers from frantic families. The impact would be to bring a level of disorganization to the soldiers, negatively impact the morale of those soldiers because they didn�t know what was going on, and flood the lines of communication so that necessary communications would be slowed to slow a reaction to the attack. This is just one more of an infinite number of possibilities of information warfare attacks that may impact a battle. This also brings the possibility undermining of the American economy. Today, California and other states are feeling the impact of an energy shortage. The blackouts of California are causing havoc on its economy. Information warfare could undermine the confidence of Americans in their government to protect them as blackouts occur due to hackers. Americans have seen how a simple email virus can cause chaos in a company. Imagine the impact of several email virus� sent at once, combined with hacking to shut down power supplies, steal secrets of businesses and the military, and cripple banking computers all at once. In today�s world, where economic strength is almost as important if not more important than military strength, America is unprepared to deal with such an attack. Unlike previous military threats, an information warfare build up cannot be seen by satellites. It cannot even be seen as being done by a government, considering how easy it is for one hacker, anywhere in the world can do the damage. Consider the information warfare attacks on the Defense Department computers in February 1998, code-named Solar Sunrise. The attacks gained intelligence information on U.S. plans for actions and disrupted command-and-control systems. It was thought to have been done by Iraq and Abu Dhabi. After investigation and search of the thought to be origin of the attacks, it was discovered that it was a false trail left by the hackers. It turned out that the hackers were two teenagers in California and an Israeli hacker. Also their motives had nothing to do with Iraq. The inability to identify attackers and the lack of a clear enemy in attacks means that deterrence is difficult in terms of stopping information warfare. It also makes it difficult to isolate the attacker and link them to a government. It also makes it unclear what is and isn�t an act of war by a government. Unlike chemical weapons or other acts of aggression, there are no specific guidelines internationally about information warfare. And unlike conventional weapons, where a government can build planes or missiles and not worry about building more for 15 to 20 years, information warfare software changes faster than any other military technology. The easiest illustration is the computer virus. Even if you buy the latest virus software, a new virus can pop up tomorrow, which is why people also buy the ability to upgrade it daily for a time. Any defense must be fluid and changing to meet demands of the extremely fast evolution of software that may be used. In order to deal with the threat of information warfare, the U.S. government should create partnerships with computer software companies to develop defenses against these attacks. This partnership should be similar to partnerships used for the computer systems in the military currently. However, this defensive software should also be made available for businesses to help defend the economic sectors in the U.S. While this software will eventually become �hackable�, the defenses will gain strength and will have to evolve with the hacking abilities of the world. Also, the U.S. will have to coordinate its efforts much better. Currently, there is little coordination and much duplication of efforts. The military should also tap its resources of the National Guard and reserves, where there are many people tied to the private sector who have the knowledge to be able to help build these defenses. If the U.S. does not develop information warfare defenses to compliment its information warfare offense, it may remain open to attack and find its military crippled in battle. Americans may find their economy destroyed if the private sector does not have access to these defensive technologies. However, the first step must be the focus on the problem and utilizing the resources of all of the U.S. to solve the greatest threat to the United States. --Tony McWilliams 5/10/01 1 2 Return to Main Page Tony McWilliams is a Sr. Policy Analyst at the Global Freedom Institute |
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