Global Issues: Conflict: Cyber Warfare

For those studying ‘The Changing Nature of Conflict’ as part of the Global Issues paper this might be of esoteric interest. The recent National Security Strategy placed cyber attacks as a Tier One threat to the United Kingdom, but how much is understood about it and how should this challenge be met? What constitutes cyber warfare and how should tackling it be incorporated into national strategy? Chatham House has just published a report on ’ On Cyber Warfare’ which argues that national strategy must be adapted if it is to take proper account of cyber warfare, and that cyberspace should be viewed as the ‘fifth battlespace’

The report’s key findings include:

• Cyber warfare can enable actors to achieve their political and strategic goals without the need for armed conflict

• Cyberspace gives disproportionate power to small and otherwise relatively insignificant actors

• Operating behind false IP addresses, foreign servers and aliases, attackers can act with almost complete anonymity and relative impunity, at least in the short term

• In cyberspace the boundaries are blurred between the military and the civilian, and between the physical and the virtual; and power can be exerted by states or non-state actors, or by proxy

• Cyberspace should be viewed as the ‘fifth battlespace’, alongside the more traditional arenas of land, air, sea and space. Cyber warfare is best understood as a new but not entirely separate component of this multifaceted conflict environment

• The transatlantic relationship is important for a variety of reasons where cyber warfare is concerned. Close cooperation between the United States and the United Kingdom in intelligence and military matters has extended into cyberspace, enabling both states to influence the domain in a way that is difficult, if not impossible, for any other bilateral partnership or alliance to match.