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Cyber Warfare: The New Front
Marie O'Neill Sciarrone
Co-founder and President of Trinity Cyber LLC and former Special Assistant to the
President for Homeland Security
Sciarrone previously served as the Special Assistant to the President for Homeland
Security and Senior Director for Cybersecurity and Information Sharing Policy in
President George W. Bush's administration. She is also a Presidential Leadership
Scholar.
As war has advanced, the battlefield has expanded from land to sea to air. Now, battles
are engaged in a new arena: cyber space.
Warfare has traditionally been executed within easily-defined periods of time and
geographic boundaries. Wars are declared and when objectives are achieved or
abandoned, the parties return home. These conflicts have been fought on identifiable
terrain in the air, on the ground, under the sea, and as of the last 20 years, in space.
Even the changing tools of war have been easily defined: the rifle, bomb, aircraft, tank,
ship, et al. Some of the newer tools, such as the improvised explosive device, are
equally tangible and identifiable.
But the internet and its expansionary nature have opened a whole new domain for attacks
and warfare. There are no geographical boundaries and the domains are beyond the
reach of traditional norms such as the Geneva Convention.
This evolution, referred to as cyber warfare, is a game-changer. It changes how we assess
our enemies, meet their challenges, and enact policies that match the growth of the
cyber domain. To determine the best policies and plans of action, government and
civilian entities must cooperate to develop common definitions and goals and
implement responses.
Those affected by the threat include officials who specialize in this area and everyday
citizens, whose protection from cyber warfare must be at the forefront of any policy.
The cooperation of citizens also is necessary for a successful policy to take root.
Technology will always outpace policy, but policymakers can reduce the gap through
engaging the public. After all, the internet touches millions of lives each day.
What exactly is cyber warfare?
We need a clear understanding of what the term means and how cyber warfare differs
from traditional warfare. Otherwise, it will be impossible to discuss and understand –
let alone address – the challenges that the Department of Defense specifically faces as
the government responds to warfare in the new digital domain. Those tests involve
finding the right policies, technologies, and staffing.
Unfortunately, no universal definition of cyber warfare exists. Even agreement on a single
way to spell the term has proven elusive. Is it "cyber warfare," "Cyber-Warfare,"
"Cyberwarfare," or "Cyber warfare"?
The subtle differences reflect a large difference in the word's connotation. Is the emphasis
on "cyber"? Is the emphasis on "war" to reflect an offensive focus versus a more
conventional defensive positioning usually associated with "cybersecurity"? Or, is the
term meant to reflect a select type of warfare? Also, is cyber warfare using digital
weapons? Is it only limited to actions taken on a computer? Is it advanced warfare
using ever-more intelligent and autonomous weapon systems? It also is important to
differentiate a cyber attack from cyber warfare. Calling it “war” implies a wider scope
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National Careers Academy

and longevity. An attack is understood to be a singular event, while war is a series of
attacks.
For this piece, the emphasis will be on using a digital means to attack an opponent – what
constitutes an attack and the warranted response.
Cyber warfare should not be thought of as computer against computer, but a much
broader concept. It is an effort through cyber space or using a digital means to attack
an opponent. These attacks could range from state-sponsored infiltration with the
objective of disrupting information systems, to individual hackers trying to make a
political statement or influence outcomes.
With the advent of non-state-sponsored terrorist organizations and the ubiquity of internet
access, offensive cyber attacks have become frequent occurrences at all levels.
Reaching agreement on terms and meanings will be critical to achieving and
determining how to best deal with this new type of warfare.

Changing a traditional view of war

Cyber warfare stands apart from warfare found in history books or movies of the 1950s
and 1960s, where the “good-guys” could see or touch the enemy. In cyber warfare, a
sniper does not pull the trigger of a gun; a unit cannot take a hill or invade an island.
Cyber warfare is fought on keyboards with armies of ones and zeros acting like the
soldiers executing orders.
It follows that any policy must stand apart from more traditional methods. Yet the
Department of Defense and others have spent billions viewing cyber space and
accompanying solutions in more traditional physical terms – likely because that is
what is familiar to them.
A new paradigm must be developed that reflects the realities of cyberspace, which
expands the battlefield anywhere to which the internet extends, particularly past the
supposedly-safe borders of our homeland and into almost every aspect of our lives.
That so much of business, political, and social activity relies almost exclusively on this
technology means escaping the impact of cyber warfare is unlikely. The capacity for a
single solution is equally unlikely.
What's more, definitive attribution of the adversarial act(s) can be difficult or even
impossible. A single person can control an army of usually-unwitting computers,
making it even more difficult to identify who is behind the actions.
This makes it challenging to establish traditional defense policies. It is unclear who has
what authority to respond in a significant cyber attack, when they respond, and what
options leadership can enact. These variables make it necessary to reach agreement on
terminology, actions, and responses. A common understanding of them will ensure we
have the political will to address these challenges.
Cyber warfare is also not always surgically-targeted, so the potential of harming those not
even involved is great. Once an attack tool is used, it is not spent like a round of
ammunition. It can be reused and even aimed against the entity that released it.
Many cyber weapons are based on software vulnerabilities and those vulnerabilities exist
on numerous systems. They can affect networks that drive health care, manufacturing,
power generation and distribution, and transportation, among others.

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As a result, it is hard to safeguard the systems used to secure and identify people,
especially our military in times of conflict. Biometrics are no longer a fingerprint with
ink. They have moved to digital versions and are stored in a digital database.
These modern challenges impact the intelligence our national security and war fighters
depend upon. Fortunately, encryption technology mitigates the threats to this
information. Yet we must remain vigilant when new advancements threaten to
compromise security.
Is a disruption intelligence gathering or cyber warfare?
There is also an important distinction between cyber warfare and intelligence activities.
The United States was aware of spying activities on our soil during the Cold War. The
intelligence community tried to observe "dead drops" and other acts of espionage.
Those efforts were not seen as an act of war in the same way an attack on U.S.
submarines or missiles pointed at American soil would have been.
Intelligence gathering will continue and even expand as the digital world pervades almost
every sphere of influence. Yet digital intrusions are hard to distinguish between
intelligence collection and attempts to intercept (or interrupt) planning for an attack.
For example, an enemy may disrupt a defense system while inserting malicious code to
collect information from our systems as part of traditional espionage information-
gathering. But the malware also could be intentionally inserted to disrupt and take
down the system for more nefarious purposes.
The capacity to determine the difference -- or where an exploitation ends and an attack
begins -- does not exist. Intent is one of the hardest things to know, but how we define
these events matters enormously. The definition will determine the response. If digital
events are considered conventional espionage, they may trigger political or legal
reviews and approvals. But a digital attack response aimed at disrupting an enemy’s
capabilities fall more along traditional military lines.
The focus of cyber warfare will likely remain on disrupting the opponent, as opposed to
creating a lethal situation. And it will focus on providing the U.S. an advantage. Cyber
warfare also will evolve as the internet evolves, including with the growth of digitally-
enabled appliances and everyday items, known as the “internet of things.”
Similarly, the “internet of military things,” which arises from the increasing connectivity
in aircraft, weapons, air defense and communications systems, and personal protective
equipment, dictates that we address the offensive and defensive warfare aspects of the
evolving cyber struggle. The internet of military things opens the U.S. military up to a
new range of weapons, opponents, and threats.
Combined arms rehearsal meeting for Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) at Camp Yongin,
South Korea, Aug. 21, 2014. (Army Sergeant Daniel Schroeder/Department of
Defense)
So, what do we do?
All of these developments present the Department of Defense with a new challenge and
beg the question: What will "traditional warfare" mean in 2025 or 2030?
Warfighters will be operating – and when necessary fighting – seamlessly from undersea,
surface, land, air, and space. They will be working with both manned and unmanned
systems that perform autonomous operations across land, air, space, and sea. They will
be working together to identify and defeat an enemy at the speed of light or in "digital
speed."
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The American military does not possess sufficient numbers of skilled operators to counter
this growing threat, much less obtain superiority in the cyber space domain. We will
need to train for a different set of skills and knowledge.
The tools that will advance U.S. military capabilities are also creating vulnerabilities
since they operate on the same internet that is under attack. As U.S. policies evolve
and incorporate innovative technologies into defense systems, they need to be
designed with an eye towards security. Developing a strong military without
protecting the electrical grids, airports, and railroads at home is short-sighted and will
hinder longer-term success. These critical infrastructure components, while not owned
by the military, must be part of the planning. They will be a vital part of protecting the
U.S. in this era of cyber warfare.
A proactive planning approach will prove the most effective way to move forward. Now,
when the military contemplates responding to a cyber attack, success is largely defined
by destroying the physical hard drive or power supply, items which can be easily
replaced by attackers. Instead, the focus must be on finding solutions within the
network. This will neutralize the adversary more effectively than short-term solutions.
As history has shown, military strategy must adapt to new domains. Cyber space is that
next domain. While traditional warfare will continue to exist, technology and cyber
operations will aid its methods.
Cyber warfare could make conventional warfare systems that employ computers and
electronics operationally ineffective or obsolete. A traditional system that cannot
respond in "digital time" to a multi-pronged threat or that cannot provide protection
while attacking others may be of little use in the future. It would be the equivalent of
the Polish Army attempting to use their horse cavalry team against the German
armored brigades at the beginning of World War II. Society and warfare have evolved
from horses against metal to metal against the matrix.
Going forward, many political and military questions will need to be addressed as we
determine how to conduct and respond to cyber warfare. Unanimous agreement is
unlikely, but an informed dialogue with the public on these issues is essential. That
will pave the way for the compromise and support necessary to establish new policies
and principles for this complicated subject of cyber warfare.

National Careers Academy. Near China Chowk, Lahore. 03234876133

National Careers Academy, Near China Chowk, Lahore. 03234876133