Cyberwarfare Like Terrorism, Cyber-Warfare Changes

Cyberwarfare

Like terrorism, cyber-warfare changes the rules of the game. Cyber-war penetrates every strata of society. The end user, whether individual consumer or commercial enterprise, is a potential victim. As Knapp & Bolton (2006) point out, cyber-warfare was once "commonly regarded as a military concern" but is now a total "societal issue" affecting non-military areas and especially commerce (p. 76). One of the arenas in which cyber-warfare plays out is, of course, identity theft. However, there are a host of ways cyber-warfare can impact the end-user from the large scale offensives terrorist organizations may wield to disruptions that are smaller in scope and yet equally as frustrating. Cyber-warfare presents tangible economic, social, and political risks that must be combatted creatively. Therefore, cyber-warfare provides opportunities for revolutionary strategies and policies.

The economic impact of cyber-warfare on end users is also the most quantifiable. Loss of assets, valuable information databases, and other measurable booty has a tremendous impact on the private sector. These losses in turn are felt by the consumer, the ultimate end-user whose daily life may be indirectly disrupted by cyber-warfare. Corporations are feeling the brunt of cyber-warfare, and are increasingly becoming direct targets of cyber crime. Sometimes cyber-warfare can be construed within the framework of traditional crime such as theft, but the techniques of cyber-warfare need to be understood with new vocabulary and a new framework. In fact, whole businesses are sprouting up in response to cyber-warfare including specialized cyber-warfare insurance providers. Increased costs of cyber-security are having a major impact on the economy (Knapp & Bolton 2006).

As Kelsey (2008) points out, the characteristics of cyber-warfare make it impossible to combat using traditional rules of war. New policies and procedures are needed to address digital terrorism ranging from corporate espionage to governmental sabotage. Cyber-warfare is not conventional war and should not be treated as such by law enforcement. Herein lies one of the political implications of cyber-warfare. Because cyber-warfare is trans-national, global efforts to prevent cyber crimes must be global in scope and cooperative in nature. Nations do have information warfare capabilities that can be harnessed preemptively as well as defensively (Knapp & Bolton 2006). However, to harness the capabilities of state-sponsored cyber warfare tools, the norms of neutrality need to be rewritten (Kelsey 2008).

Finally, the social impacts of cyber-warfare are in many ways similar to the impacts of terrorism. The nebulous fear from unidentifiable non-state actors has a tremendous impact on social life and how individuals use information technology. Consumers are concerned about the protection of private data, such as banking information. Cyber-warfare can potentially dismantle entire organizations, and disrupt essential services. Given the push to digitalize medical records, the health of human beings is also at stake.