Cyber Warfare

The highest level of threat on the spectrum of cyber conflict is cyber warfare. Defining exactly what is meant by cyber or information warfare can be difficult and encompasses many aspects of traditional attacks against information systems and also warfare waged by using computer systems to attack computer network or software
systems. For the purpose of this paper, cyber warfare will be defined as the "use of computer intrusion techniques and other capabilities against an adversary‘s information-based infrastructure" to intentionally affect national security or to further operations against national security. The basic tools for attack such as the computer, modem, telephone, and software, are essentially the same as those used by other actors on the spectrum of cyber conflict. 

If the basic cyber attack tools and skills are common across the spectrum, it may be difficult to distinguish recreational hackers from Information Warriors. Said another way:

An IW attack against US infrastructures may be little more than a series of hacker attacks, conducted against carefully chosen targets, synchronized in time, to accomplish specific purposes. An adversary could combine cyber attacks with physical attacks in an effort to paralyze or panic large segments of society. It could damage our capability to respond to incidents (by disabling the 911 system or emergency communications, for example), hamper our ability to deploy conventional military forces, and otherwise limit the freedom of action of our national leadership.

In most cases, the only way to differentiate between a hacker or cyber warfare attack may be in the intensity, organization or damage of the attack and perhaps only if it is conducted in conjunction with other traditional warfare attacks or a declaration of war by an enemy state.

This difficulty in distinguishing between the type of attack on the cyber conflict spectrum exposes the most important issue in defining the type of cyber threat. The definition must include identity of the perpetrator and his intentions. During an attack, we may not know if it is cyber war unless it is in conjunction with a traditional war against a known enemy. It could also be an act of cyber crime, hacktivism, or cyber terrorism. The key issue will be who is the perpetrator and what are his intentions.