Opinion In the cyber arena
All the major powers are preparing for conflict online
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Information warfare is by no means a new phenomenon. Manipulation,subterfuge,eavesdropping,concealment,disruption and destruction of information are all part of human behaviour. Information has always been used in different ways in military,socio-economic and political contexts to influence opponents,friendly forces and the domestic population. But information warfare has of course also evolved along with computers,internet and mobile communications. All the major powers are giving this kind of warfare an increasingly prominent,and sometimes decisive,role in conflicts. Every major military and political conflict now includes cyber components.
The Gulf War of 1990-91 demonstrated a radical change in military strategy. Drawing from theories of command and control,the US-dominated coalition force attacked strategic Iraqi hubs such as staff,radar stations and networks. Critical parts of Iraqs infrastructure were knocked out. Once the Iraqi chain of command was broken,the system quickly fell apart. Less than 100 hours after the first allied tanks crossed the border into Kuwait,the military phase of the war was over.
Since the Iraqi weapons arsenal was largely Soviet-built,Iraqi inferiority came as a shock for the Russian military as well as for China. Saddam Husseins army was modern,and one of the regions largest. Doctrines based on Cold War structures had become obsolete. The age of the mass army was definitely over and a new approach was necessary. A new paradigm,based on information and networks,was under way. Achieving information superiority over the enemy,and depriving the enemy of access to accurate information,came to be regarded as decisive factors.
As a result of the rapid IT development and the experience of the Gulf War,the US adopted a new military concept called network-centric warfare. A report published in 1996 described some of the basic characteristics of the concept,which is based on military structures being viewed as a large network of staff and command centres,units,sensors and weapon systems,linked to each other physically and logically. The US defence department created a global network of interconnected networks of computers and sensors,called the Global Information Grid (GIG),to be utilised as a resource for coordination and mobilisation.
The goal is that the strategic level,that is,general staff and military headquarters,will use the network to obtain an overview of the various aspects of the conflict and be able to control and act directly on the operational and tactical levels. The network logic will overcome what Clausewitz,the military theorist from the 1800s,termed the fog of war. The theories about network-centric warfare have become a cornerstone of the transformation of the US armed forces. Many other countries have also embraced these theories.
As network ideas come to the fore and are implemented in a way similar to the GIG,there is growing criticism of parts of the concept. For instance,the challenges of information warfare are rarely mentioned,such as the need to create robust networks,the risk of cyber espionage,and the handling of confidential information in networks that many people have access to.
Throughout the 2000s,the number of cyber-attacks on US critical information infrastructure has accelerated. Today,they represent one of the most serious strategic threats to the nation. Technological superiority based on network-centric logic also has an Achilles heel: its enormous reliance on functioning IT infrastructure.
The network concept and dependence on GPS technology and powerful computers have left the US vulnerable to hostile information attacks,especially in the form of cyber warfare and espionage over the internet. The US singles out China as the most serious threat in the cyber arena,alongside Russia.
To protect its sovereignty in the digital realm,the US Cyber Command was established in 2010. In May 2011,a new US doctrine was introduced,under which the country reserves the right to retaliate against major cyber-attacks on key public infrastructure. Furthermore,the US has urged NATO to try to prevent cyber-attacks.
A new era of warfare is in the making. All the major powers are preparing for conflict online. As cyber warfare becomes a reality that every modern state must get used to,a number of countries worldwide are developing cyber-defence units to protect military networks and systems. They also define national cyber strategies to cope with a new situation. In the fast growing countries of Asia,tensions arise between nations with competing ambitions,such as India,Pakistan and China. From an Indian perspective,capabilities to defend and protect vital infrastructure and information assets from harmful operations will be of the greatest importance,today and in future.
Incidents in the last few years illustrate the growing challenges to cyber security: the massive Distributed Denial of Service attack (DDoS) on the spam-fighting organisation Spamhaus project recently,the largest DDoS ever detected so far; cyber espionage activities such as GhostNet,with connections to China,revealed in 2009; Operation Aurora in 2009-2010,directed against Google and other enterprises; hacktivistic attacks on Estonia in 2007 and Georgia the year after. Overall,it can be said that Clausewitzs fog of war is more relevant than ever especially in cyberspace.
Roland Heickero is associate professor of warfare studies at the Swedish National Defence College and the author of The Dark Sides of the Internet: On Cyber Threats and Information Warfare,express@expressindia.com
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