Information warfare

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

War Military History

Eras Prehistoric Ancient Medieval Gunpowder Industrial Modern Battlespace Air Information Land Sea Space Weapons Armor Artillery Biological Cavalry Chemical Electronic Infantry Nuclear Psychological Tactics Attrition Guerilla Maneuver Siege Total war Trench Strategy Economic Grand Operational Organization Formations Ranks Units Logistics Equipment Materiel Supply line Lists Battles Commanders Operations Sieges Theorists Wars War crimes Weapons Writers War Portal   v • d • e

Information warfare is the use and management of information in pursuit of a competitive advantage over an opponent. Information warfare may involve collection of tactical information, assurance that one's own information is valid, spreading of propaganda or disinformation to demoralize the enemy and the public, undermining the quality of opposing force information and denial of information collection opportunities to opposing forces.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Origins 3 Information Operations 4 Non-military 5 See also 6 References 7 Bibliography 7.1 Books 7.2 Other 8 External links 8.1 Resources 8.2 Course Syllabi 8.3 Papers: Research and Theory 8.4 Papers: Other 8.5 News articles 8.6 United States Department of Defense IO Doctrine 8.7 Counterterrorism

[edit] Overview

Information warfare can take many forms:

• Television and radio transmission can be jammed.
• Television and radio transmission can be hijacked for a disinformation campaign
• Logistics networks can be disabled.
• Enemy communications networks can be disabled or spoofed.
• Stock exchanges transactions can be sabotaged either with electronic intervention, leaking sensitive information or placing disinformation.

The US Air Force has had Information Warfare Squadrons since the 1980s. In fact, the official misson of the US Air Force is now to "To provide sovereign options for the defense of the United States and its global interests. To fly and fight in Air, Space, and Cyberspace" with the latter referring to its Information Warfare role.

As the Air Force often risks aircraft and aircrews to attack strategic enemy communications targets, remotely disabling such targets using software and other means can provide a safer alternative. In addition, disabling such networks electronically instead of explosively also allows them to be quickly renabled after the enemy territory is occupied. Similarly, counter information warfare units are employed to deny such capability to the enemy. The first application of these techniques were used against Iraqi communications networks in the Gulf War.

Also during the 1991 Gulf War, Dutch hackers stole information about U.S. troop movements from U.S. Defense Department computers and tried to sell it to the Iraqis, who thought it was a hoax and turned it down [1]. In January 1999, U.S. Air Intelligence computers were hit by a coordinated attack, part of which appeared to come from Russian hacking [2].

[edit] Origins

Information about own forces, allied forces and opposing forces has always been a key feature of military operations, discussed in Sun Tzu's The Art of War:

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

Nations, corporations, and individuals each seek to increase, protect and exploit their own information while trying to limit and penetrate the adversary's. Methods to collect, store, analyse and exploit information cover the whole range of both military and commercial activities and whilst this discussion is related to the military application of the discipline these methods legitimately apply in the commercial environment.

Since the 1960s, there have been extraordinary improvements in the technical means of transmission, protection, collection, storage and analysis which have allowed significant improvements in the exploitation of the information domain.

[edit] Information Operations

This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can (December 2006).

Information Operations (Info Ops) is an evolving discipline within the military. It has emerged from earlier concepts such as "Command & Control Warfare" and "Information Warfare" - mainly US dominated, originating in the 1990s and considering lessons learned from the Gulf War(s), phenomena like the so-called "CNN Effect", and the enormous advance in Information Technology.

Today Germany leads a multinational effort on developing Info Ops as an integrating function / joint mission area within the military, called the "Multinational Information Operations Experiment" (MNIOE). The current 20 MNIOE partners define Info Ops as "The advice to and co-ordination of military activities affecting information and information systems – including system behaviour and capabilities – in order to create desired effects." This definition - and its related context - differs from extant national views (e.g., the USA or GBR) and provides an advanced approach to multinational and interagency information activities in support of crisis management and effects-based operations.

Designing and implementing guidance for Coalition actions to affect information and information systems (information activities) is a challenge; it applies to the whole scope of civil-military efforts from pre-crisis situations to post-conflict reconstruction, and spans all levels of involvement.

Ongoing initiatives for Info Ops Concept Development and Experimentation (CD&E) are derived from the following problem statement:

Joint and combined warfighters lack integrated processes and organisation to plan, execute and assess effects-based information activities in a multinational and interagency context based on a comprehensive and systemic understanding of the operational environment using all available and appropriate means. In particular:

• commanders and their staff lack the means, methods and training to gain and maintain appropriate situational awareness and understanding of the information environment;
• commanders are often unaware of the scope and scale of options to affect information and/or information systems;
• relevant co-ordination processes are not institutionalised, but rather depend on the personality of actors, occur by chance and/or erratically;
• extant organisational structures often limit the flexibility of the force to adapt to mission and situation requirements;
• commanders often do not realise the full scope of opportunities as well as risk associated with mainstream military actions and their potential to create effects on information and information systems;
• military plans and operations are often inadequately integrated with civil information activities; the overall consistency of comprehensive Coalition efforts needs to be improved in this respect.

The MNIOE project will develop solutions to answer the following questions (CD&E issues):

• How do we describe the characteristics of the information environment to support focused systemic analysis?
• What means, methods and training do we need to gain a comprehensive and systemic understanding of the information environment?
• How do we incorporate comprehensive, clear, and achievable guidance for Coalition information activities (Coalition Information Strategy) in the multinational interagency strategic planning process?
• How do we translate and implement the Coalition Information Strategy for coordinated civil and military action at the operational level of command?
• How can we identify, rate, and exploit the full spectrum of effects in the information environment and military information activities within a comprehensive approach?
• How do we appropriately consider the opportunities and risks associated with effects in the information environment and mainstream military and civil actions?
• How do we design and implement efficient and effective advice and co-ordination for planning, execution and assessment of military information activities?
• How do we coordinate effects and activities related to the information environment amongst military and civil actors within a comprehensive approach?
• How do we share information to enable efficient and effective multinational interagency planning for Coalition information activities?
• How do we share information to enable efficient and effective execution and assessment of military and civil information activities?

[edit] Non-military

Organized teams of non-military, even non-governmental information fighters become an increasingly common phenomenon. They can advance different political agendas, be involved in astroturfing or participate in election campaigns ^[1].

[edit] See also

• Information Operations Roadmap
• Communications security
• Command and control warfare
• Gatekeeper (politics) Left Gatekeepers
• Disinformation
• Black propaganda
• Network-centric warfare
• Internet brigades - psychological warfare on the web by Russian and Chinese security services
• Pentagon military analyst program
• Public affairs (military)

[edit] References

1. ^ Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, The Washington Post, September 19, 2005.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Books

• Winn Schwartau, ed, Information Warfare: Cyberterrorism: Protecting your personal security in the electronic age, Thunder's Mouth Press, 2nd ed, (1996) (ISBN 1560251328).

• John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt, In Athena's Camp, RAND (1997).

• Dorothy Denning, Information Warfare and Security, Addison-Wesley (1998) (ISBN 0201433036).

• James Adams, The Next World War: Computers are the Weapons and the Front line is Everywhere, Simon and Schuster (1998) (ISBN 0684834529).

• Edward Waltz, Information Warfare Principles and Operations, Artech House, 1998, ISBN 0-89006-511-X

• John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt, Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy, RAND (2001) (ISBN 0833030302).

• Gregory J. Rattray, Strategic Warfare in Cyberspace, MIT Press (2001) (ISBN 0262182092).

• Anthony H. Cordesman, Cyber-threats, Information Warfare, and Critical Infrastructure Protection: DEFENDING THE US HOMELAND (2002) (ISBN 0275974235).

• Leigh Armistead, Information Operations: The Hard Reality of Soft Power, Joint Forces Staff College and the National Security Agency (2004) (ISBN 1574886991).

• Thomas Rid, War and Media Operations: The US Military and the Press from Vietnam to Iraq], Routledge (2007) (ISBN 0415416590).

[edit] Other

• Science at War: Information Warfare, The History Channel (1998).

[edit] External links

[edit] Resources

• Politically Motivated Computer Crime
• Cyberspace and Information Operations Study Center, Air University, U.S. Air Force.
• IWS - The Information Warfare Site
• The Information Warfare Monitor
• Information Warfare, I-War, IW, C4I, Cyberwar
• Federation of American Scientists - IW Resources
• Association of Old Crows http://www.myaoc.org The Electronic Warfare and Information Operations Association
• C4I.org - Computer Security & Intelligence
• Information Warfare, Information Operations and Electronic Attack Capabilities Air Power Australia.
• Committee on Policy Consequences and Legal/Ethical Implications of Offensive Information Warfare, The National Academies.
• Program on Information and Warfare, Global Information Society Project, World Policy Institute.
• News and information on politically motivated computer crime
• Information Warefare blog Created to support the 3rd Int'l Conf. on Information Warfare and Security at the University of Nebraska at Omaha on April 24-25, 2008.
• Information WarriorsInformation Warriors is web forum dedicated to the discussion of Navy Information Warfare

[edit] Course Syllabi

• COSC 511 Information Warfare: Terrorism, Crime, and National Security @ Department of Computer Science, Georgetown University (1997-2002) (Dorothy Denning).
• Information Warfare, Cyberterrorism, and Hacktivism from Cybercrime, Cyberterrorism and Digital Law Enforcement, New York Law School.

[edit] Papers: Research and Theory

• Col Andrew Borden, USAF (Ret.), What is Information Warfare? Aerospace Power Chronicles (1999).
• Dr Carlo Kopp, A Fundamental Paradigm of Infowar (February, 2000).
• Research & Theory Links, Cyberspace and Information Operations Study Center, Air War College, Air University, U.S. Air Force.

[edit] Papers: Other

• An essay on Information Operations by Zachary P. Hubbard
• The Culture Variable in the Influence Equation, working paper to be published in The Public Diplomacy Handbook, Routledge (forthcoming March 2008).

[edit] News articles

• Army, Air Force seek to go on offensive in cyber war, GovExec.com (June 13, 2007).
• NATO says urgent need to tackle cyber attack, Reuters (June 14, 2007).
• America prepares for 'cyber war' with China, Telegraph.uk.co (June 15, 2007).
• NATO, US gear up for cyberpunk warfare, The Register (June 15, 2007).

[edit] United States Department of Defense IO Doctrine

• Information Operations Roadmap (DOD 2003)
• Information Operations (JP 3-13 2006)
• Operations Security (JP 3-13.3)
• Military Deception (JP 3-13.4)
• Joint Doctrine for PSYOPS (JP 3-53 2003)
• Joint Doctrine for Public Affairs (JP 3-61 2005)

[edit] Counterterrorism

• Destabilizing Terrorist Networks: Disrupting and Manipulating Information Flows in the Global War on Terrorism, Yale Information Society Project Conference Paper (2005).
• Seeking Symmetry in Fourth Generation Warfare: Information Operations in the War of Ideas, Presentation (PDF slides) to the Bantle - Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism (INSCT) Symposium, Syracuse University (2006).
• K. A. Taipale, Seeking Symmetry on the Information Front: Confronting Global Jihad on the Internet, 16 National Strategy F. Rev. 14 (Summer 2007).