The recent statement by US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta about the need to confront Iranian cyber warfare waged against American targets highlights developments of the last two years regarding Iran’s extended activity to construct defensive and offensive cyber capabilities. Apparently underway is a large cyber campaign by Iran, both to attack various targets in retaliation for the sanctions imposed against it and to repel the cyber attacks directed at it.
Over the past several years China has been developing operational capabilities in the field of cyberspace warfare. A cyber attack may be defined as the unauthorized penetration of computer and communications systems belonging to individuals or organizations for the purpose of espionage and information theft, in order thereby to damage or disrupt the functioning of these systems or to damage other systems dependent on them, even to a point of causing actual physical damage. Despite denials by the Chinese government, researchers posit...
Cyberspace has become a new domain of warfare in the modern battleground, joining the existing natural domains of land, sea, air, and space. The memorandum describes the strategic and operational characteristics of the human-created cyber domain and the cyber arms race underway. It surveys international security-related incidents and programs in the cyber arena, and discusses the significance of the domain for defense of cyber-based systems in the State of Israel. The study reviews some of the measures Israel has taken thus far in...
The possibility of successful deterrence against cyber attacks is limited with regard to each of the dimensions required for its success: the existence of capability (weapons), the credibility of the threat, and the ability to convey the threatening message to the potential challenger. Nonetheless, there are several elements to consider that under certain circumstances are likely to serve as the basis for successful deterrence even in the realm of cyberspace. This essay surveys the literature and proposes directions for continued...
This essay focuses on an analysis of the factors that are likely to make terrorist organizations use cyber tools to perpetrate attacks on critical infrastructures of sovereign institutions and symbols, commercial and industrial infrastructures and systems, and public civilian targets. In addition, it examines the question of whether the threat is actual and imminent, or whether it is a far-fetched possibility that surfaces from time to time in the general discourse on the subject.
This article relies illuminates the characteristics of the information age and clarifies the issues that emerge when technological development interfaces with national security. It analyzes the current characteristics of cyberspace, and discusses the implications for national security questions. It then reviews the field known as information warfare and focuses on the totally new phenomenon of computer warfare in cyberspace. The article then reviews cyber weapons and methods of warfare, discusses defense, attack, and deterrence, and...
This article aims to provide a balanced picture of the phenomenon of cyberwar. It will show how and why the meaning of “cyberwar” has evolved from the narrow conception referring exclusively to military interaction to its broad meaning, which has become detached from “war” and encompasses almost every activity linked to the aggressive use of computers. In particular, it will distinguish between different forms of cyber conflict in order to lay the ground for a levelheaded threat assessment. It further shows...
Strategic ambiguity has an honored place in the mores of statecraft. The studied unwillingness of states to say what they have done (or would do) coupled with the lack of proof that they have done it (or would do it) liberates other states. They can argue that something was done, but if their purposes so dictate, they can pretend that it was not done. The degree of doubt can vary: from thorough (no one is sure what has happened or would happen) to nominal (no one is fooled). In either case, however, those who did it have provided a...
The article begins by defining the subject of critical infrastructures, and discusses the origins, uniqueness, and innovativeness of the threat to them. It then discusses levels of coping with the threat, using conceptual parallels to the world of military content. The existing Israeli response will be reviewed briefly, with an emphasis on the central challenges the cyber threat poses to public policy. Finally, directions for future research and action will be presented.
The impact of computer and communications systems in recent decades has not bypassed the national security of states in general, and the State of Israel in particular. Most systems in developed societies rely on computer and information infrastructures, and this growing dependence on information and communication technologies means that a blow to computers and information flow processes is liable to disrupt, paralyze, and sometimes even cause substantive physical damage to essential systems. Computer-based capabilities and their...
Developments in computers have made possible far reaching changes in all areas of life, and the rapid progress in computing, communications, and software has led to a dramatic reduction in the cost of producing, processing, and disseminating information. The scientific-technological developments of recent decades gave rise to “the information revolution,” which involves the processing and dissemination of information. Information technologies continue to develop at an accelerated pace, and a new era has arisen in the...
On October 27, Iran launched it first satellite. The Sinah-1 was carried by a Russian Kosmos-3M Space Launch Vehicle (SLV), which took off from Plesetsk in northern Russia and also carried seven other satellites for various states and research organizations. Thus, Iran has become the forty-third country in the world to own a satellite.
