Cyber is a short hand for something we don’t understand but we’ll lump it under the word cyber because it is sexy. Cyber can be networks, processing, storage of information, the information itself, cognition, social interaction, and so much more.…
Category: Cyber Conflict
State on State conflict using a variety of assets within and outside of cyberspace to create specific effects as a form of projection of power.
Cyber warfare: Huffingtonpost
Cyber warfare by Lt. Gen. Clarence E. McKnight Jr. at Huffpost World I spent a lifetime in the military and, while I love the officers and troops without reservation, I hate the greed and poor judgment that motivates certain segments of…
Cyber weapons, weapons of mass discussion
When we talk about cyber weapons a point that often gets missed is that because cyber is a domain there are many forms weapons can take. There is an inherent tendency to focus on the muskets of cyber. The virus,…
Cyber is to electronic warfare as rain is to a dam
I’ve watched as the cyber v. electronic warfare fight rages. The dollars, power, esteem, and leadership within the government drive forces in the debate. On the one hand you have a tried and true organization like the Association of Old…
Aligning strategy to goals in cyber warfare
First, there is no such thing as cyber warfare. There is war in the cyber domain and cyber will likely be an adjunct in the future towards other aims of war. Much like air, land and sea conflicts are adjuncts…
DARPA Plan X: Weapons without an operational art
What does DARPA hope to achieve with Plan X? On the outside it looks like they are looking for battlefield mapping or tools for situational awareness. It looks like they are looking for point and shoot weapons and techniques for…
The reasons a “cyber attack” is NOT going to happen
In a thought exercise we can look at why something isn’t going to happen regardless of how we feel about it. The idea is to raise up some of the concerns about a concept and evaluate it from differing viewpoints.…
The hegemony of bureacracy
Hegemony – the political dominance of one state over another Bureaucracy – An unelected government organization that makes rules, laws, and policy What we have growing in the arena of cyber policy is a hegemonic bureaucracy filled with all of…
Generations of cyber weapons
The discussion of the concept of cyber warfare weapons jumps between a few threads that make them harder to understand than really is needed. One of the conceptual problems is that there are types or generations of cyber weapons and…
The cyber force matrix
There has been a lot of ink spilled on the idea of nation-state activities in cyber space and much of that discussion has been centered on military activities in the domain. Though interesting this misses the concept that a nation…
When critical infrastructure is no longer a target then commodity infrastructure suffices
With the current list of critical infrastructures inclusive of electricity generation, telecommunication, water, transportation, and financial services you would think society has identified key risk points. I think that would be false. Though key resources are identified for each of…
Information assurance and security and cyber warfare is muskets in a sharks with lasers world
Freedberg writing “Military Debates Who Should Pull The Trigger For A Cyber Attack” Quotes General Cartwright (Ret) as saying “We’ve been thinking 90% defense, 10% offense. That’s bass-ackwards for us.” Later in the article Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of…
Cyber security (cyber war) hype cycle writ large
In the late 1800s a new form of warfare was starting to rise into the collective understanding of the world militaries. Command and control warfare through automated means began with the telegraph. This allowed for a network centric conflict to…
CERIAS Posters: Two posters on some of my works in progress
This week I’m attending the CERIAS symposium at Purdue University in West Lafayette Indiana. I’ve had some really great conversations with several leaders in the industry, and found some great contacts within government that may or may not lead anywhere.…
Strategic blindness: When aliens attack
United States doctrine and force structure is built around the domains of air, sea, land, space and now cyber. Domains as defined create cylinders of capability that can be merged and fought within. The domain construct is as much a…