Conflict in The digital Age- The War on Cyberspace

 We all know what war is, it’s generally defined as armed conflict between two or more states. Cyber war, the use of conducting war over internet or other technology, is a term fairly new to our generation.

Using the internet for war purposes is probably not something a students thinks about in their free time. For people concerned with politics and the economy, it’s a big deal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/01/us/politics/01cyber.html?_r=1&scp=8&sq=digital%20war&st=cse

The New York Times recently published an article on the Pentagon titled, ‘Pentagon to Consider Cyber Attacks Acts of War,’ which is about trying to create a formal strategy to deter cyber attacks on the United States. They ‘plan to issue a new strategy soon declaring that a computer attack from a foreign nation can be considered an act of war that may result in a military response.’

Before this class and specifically learning about the internet and cyber espionage, I never viewed the internet as a weapon, especially not one that could cause war. In class, we talked about cyber espionage, gathering secret information over the internet and why that is useful:

-For political or economical advantages

-Equipment disruption – use computers to interfere with communication (preventing orders to go through the chain of command).

-Counterfeit hardware

-Web vandalism

-Propaganda vandalism

-DOS attack – denial of service attack

‘Pentagon to Consider Cyber attacks Acts of War’ shows the world that the possibility of our nations computers being attacked by a foreign nation is not such a foreign idea. As we discussed in class, the tricky thing about cyber attacks is not knowing where they are coming from, and who is going to be targeted next.

All of this information about the conflicts with the internet and computers in this age makes me wonder, are we prepared if our internet and computers were attacked?

From the article, it doesn’t sound likely. If American computers were attacked, administration officials say that options from the U.S. include: economic sanctions, retaliatory cyber attacks or a military strike.

The question is, what is a military strike? And how would we implement a retaliatory cyber attack? In class discussion we learned that US has a cyber security zhar (advisor on the internet activity and keeps cyber security in check), and many statements have been said that we are unprepared in case of such an attack on our cyber world.

The New York Times article says that National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of Homeland Security are all working on cyber-related issues that fit with the international cyber strategy (the Obama administrations proposal for international computer security standards with penalties for countries and organizations that fall short).

 It is slightly reassuring to know that people are working to protect our computers and technology. 

“The effort to build trust in the cyberspace realm is one which should be pushed in capitals around the world,” said Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, the soon to be ambassador to China for President Obama.

What we need is a nation without conflict in cyberspace. We can only aim for that goal with trust, taking precautions, and awareness of what is going on in our digital age.