Information warfare (IW) is a concept involving the battlespace use and management of information and communication technology (ICT) in pursuit of a competitive advantage over an opponent. Information warfare is the manipulation of information trusted by a target without the target's awareness so that the target will make decisions against their interest but in the interest of the one conducting information warfare. As a result,it is not clear when information warfare begins,ends,and how strong or destructive it is. Information warfare may involve the collection of tactical information,assurance(s) that one's information is valid,spreading of propaganda or disinformation to demoralize or manipulate the enemy and the public,undermining the quality of the opposing force's information and denial of information-collection opportunities to opposing forces. Information warfare is closely linked to psychological warfare.
Geopolitics is the study of the effects of Earth's geography on politics and international relations. While geopolitics usually refers to countries and relations between them,it may also focus on two other kinds of states:de facto independent states with limited international recognition and relations between sub-national geopolitical entities,such as the federated states that make up a federation,confederation or a quasi-federal system.
Paul Henry Nitze was an American politician who served as United States Deputy Secretary of Defense,U.S. Secretary of the Navy,and Director of Policy Planning for the U.S. State Department. He is best known for being the principal author of NSC 68 and the co-founder of Team B. He helped shape Cold War defense policy over the course of numerous presidential administrations.
Deterrence theory refers to scholarship and practice on how threats or limited force by one party can convince another party to refrain from initiating some course of action. The topic gained increased prominence as a military strategy during the Cold War with regard to the use of nuclear weapons and is related to but distinct from the concept of mutual assured destruction,which models the preventative nature of full-scale nuclear attack that would devastate both parties in a nuclear war. The central problem of deterrence revolves around how to credibly threaten military action or nuclear punishment on the adversary despite its costs to the deterrer.
Cyberterrorism is the use of the Internet to conduct violent acts that result in,or threaten,the loss of life or significant bodily harm,in order to achieve political or ideological gains through threat or intimidation. Acts of deliberate,large-scale disruption of computer networks,especially of personal computers attached to the Internet by means of tools such as computer viruses,computer worms,phishing,malicious software,hardware methods,programming scripts can all be forms of internet terrorism. Cyberterrorism is a controversial term. Some authors opt for a very narrow definition,relating to deployment by known terrorist organizations of disruption attacks against information systems for the primary purpose of creating alarm,panic,or physical disruption. Other authors prefer a broader definition,which includes cybercrime. Participating in a cyberattack affects the terror threat perception,even if it isn't done with a violent approach. By some definitions,it might be difficult to distinguish which instances of online activities are cyberterrorism or cybercrime.
The Munich Security Conference is an annual conference on international security policy that has been held in Munich,Bavaria,Germany since 1963. Former names are Wehrkundetagung and Münchner Konferenz für Sicherheitspolitik. It is the world's largest gathering of its kind.
Cyberwarfare is the use of digital attacks against an enemy state,causing comparable harm to actual warfare and/or disrupting the vital computer systems. There is significant debate among experts regarding the definition of cyberwarfare,and even if such a thing exists. One view is that the term "cyberwarfare" is a misnomer,since no offensive cyber actions to date could be described as war. An alternative view is that "cyberwarfare" is a suitable label for cyber attacks which cause physical damage to people and objects in the real world.
Gary James Schmitt is an American political activist who served as executive director (1999–2001) and president (2002–2005) of the New Citizenship Project before becoming the executive director of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) from 1998 to 2005. He is now a resident scholar and co-director of the American Enterprise Institute’s Marilyn Ware Center for Security Studies launched in 2012.
Proactive cyber defence means acting in anticipation to oppose an attack through cyber and cognitive domains. Proactive cyber defence can be understood as options between offensive and defensive measures. It includes interdicting,disrupting or deterring an attack or a threat's preparation to attack,either pre-emptively or in self-defence. Common methods include cyber deception,attribution,threat hunting and adversarial pursuit. The mission of the pre-emptive and proactive operations is to conduct aggressive interception and disruption activities against an adversary using:psychological operations,managed information dissemination,precision targeting,information warfare operations,computer network exploitation,and other active threat reduction measures. The proactive defense strategy is meant to improve information collection by stimulating reactions of the threat agents and to provide strike options as well as to enhance operational preparation of the real or virtual battlespace. Proactive cyber defence can be a measure for detecting and obtaining information before a cyber attack,or it can also be impending cyber operation and be determining the origin of an operation that involves launching a pre-emptive,preventive,or cyber counter-operation.
Cyberwarfare by Russia includes denial of service attacks,hacker attacks,dissemination of disinformation and propaganda,participation of state-sponsored teams in political blogs,internet surveillance using SORM technology,persecution of cyber-dissidents and other active measures. According to investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov,some of these activities were coordinated by the Russian signals intelligence,which was part of the FSB and formerly a part of the 16th KGB department. An analysis by the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2017 outlines Russia's view of "Information Countermeasures" or IPb as "strategically decisive and critically important to control its domestic populace and influence adversary states",dividing 'Information Countermeasures' into two categories of "Informational-Technical" and "Informational-Psychological" groups. The former encompasses network operations relating to defense,attack,and exploitation and the latter to "attempts to change people's behavior or beliefs in favor of Russian governmental objectives."
The Center for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SAM) is Azerbaijan’s first governmental,non-profit think tank founded on November 12,2007 by the Decree of the President,Ilham Aliyev. Its headquarters is in Baku,Azerbaijan. In February 2008,by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan,Elkhan Nuriyev was appointed director of the Center for Strategic Studies,known by the acronym SAM in Azerbaijani language.
Taras Kuzio is a British academic and expert in Ukrainian political,economic and security affairs. In 2010,he predicted the Russian annexation of Crimea that would result from the ousting of President Yanukovych. He has British citizenship,but is based in Toronto,Canada.
Dmitri Alperovitch is a Russian-born American computer security industry executive. He is co-founder and former chief technology officer of CrowdStrike. In August 2011,as vice president of threat research at McAfee,he published Operation Shady RAT,a report on suspected Chinese intrusions into at least 72 organizations,including defense contractors,businesses worldwide,the United Nations and the International Olympic Committee. Alperovitch is a naturalized American citizen born in Russia who came to the United States in 1994 with his family.
A cyberattack is any offensive maneuver that targets computer information systems,computer networks,infrastructures,or personal computer devices. An attacker is a person or process that attempts to access data,functions,or other restricted areas of the system without authorization,potentially with malicious intent. Depending on the context,cyberattacks can be part of cyber warfare or cyberterrorism. A cyberattack can be employed by sovereign states,individuals,groups,society,or organizations,and it may originate from an anonymous source. A product that facilitates a cyberattack is sometimes called a cyber weapon.
The Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of Kazakhstan (KazISS) is a Kazakhstan state institution aimed at providing research and analytical support to the President of Kazakhstan and his government. The KazISS provides research related to international and domestic affairs as well as the social and economic development of Kazakhstan. The KazISS aims to provide predictive research and analysis for the country's leadership.
Arnold Oscar Wolfers was a Swiss-American lawyer,economist,historian,and international relations scholar,most known for his work at Yale University and for being a pioneer of classical international relations realism.
Fancy Bear is a Russian cyber espionage group. Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has said with a medium level of confidence that it is associated with the Russian military intelligence agency GRU. The UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office as well as security firms SecureWorks,ThreatConnect,and Mandiant,have also said the group is sponsored by the Russian government. In 2018,an indictment by the United States Special Counsel identified Fancy Bear as GRU Unit 26165.
The Democratic National Committee cyber attacks took place in 2015 and 2016,in which two groups of Russian computer hackers infiltrated the Democratic National Committee (DNC) computer network,leading to a data breach. Cybersecurity experts,as well as the U.S. government,determined that the cyberespionage was the work of Russian intelligence agencies.
Clint Watts is a senior fellow at the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University and a Foreign Policy Research Institute fellow. He previously was an infantry officer in the United States Army,and was the Executive Officer of the Combating Terrorism Center at United States Military Academy at West Point (CTC). He became a Special Agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation where he served on the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF). He has consulted for the FBI Counterterrorism Division (CTD) and FBI National Security Branch (NSB).
The Plot to Hack America:How Putin's Cyberspies and WikiLeaks Tried to Steal the 2016 Election is a non-fiction book by Malcolm Nance about what the author describes as Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It was published in paperback,audiobook,and e-book formats in 2016 by Skyhorse Publishing. A second edition was also published the same year,and a third edition in 2017. Nance researched Russian intelligence,working as a Russian interpreter and studying KGB history.
