Information Warfare

Psychology of Future Warfare: Asymmetric Risk and Decision-Taking (From CyberWar 3.0: Human Factors In Information Operations and Future Conflict, P 49-76, …

by Mils Hills

A New Perspective on the Achievement of Psychological Effects from Cyber-Warfare Payloads: The Analogy of Parasitic Manipulation of Host Behaviour

by Mils Hills

Journal of Law and Cyberwarfare, Volume 1, Issue 1, summer 2012 (forthcoming)

This paper represents a thinkpiece exploring early considerations of a new way of understanding and countering... more This paper represents a thinkpiece exploring early considerations of a new way of understanding and countering decision-making influence effected by Cyber-Warfare payloads (where ‘cyber’ implies the use of any technology between sender / recipient). The approach detailed uses a form of Analogical Research (AR) to extract value from a biological model, in this case the effects that parasites exercise on their hosts. There is a lot to learn from parasites and the response of infected organisms - and the analogy has (as it were) legs.

To picket just click it! Social netwar and industrial conflict in a global economy

by Steve Walker

The Network Force

by Mark Tempestilli

Waging Information Warfare. Making the Connection Between Information and Power in a Transformed World.

by Mark Tempestilli

My Little KONY: Rise of the Flashpublics

by Jack Bratich

Counterpunch
March 13, 2012

Essay on the KONY 2012 phenomenon, examining social media, affective contagion, and counter-radicalization. ... more Essay on the KONY 2012 phenomenon, examining social media, affective contagion, and counter-radicalization.  Introduces concept of "flashpublics".

On Information Warfare: A Response to Taddeo

by Tim Stevens

Philosophy & Technology (forthcoming).

Taddeo’s recent article, ‘Information Warfare: A Philosophical Perspective’ (Philos. Technol. 25:105–120, 2012) is a... more Taddeo’s recent article, ‘Information Warfare: A Philosophical Perspective’ (Philos. Technol. 25:105–120, 2012) is a useful addition to the literature on information communications technologies (ICTs) and warfare. In this short response, I draw attention to two issues arising from the article. The first concerns the applicability of ‘information warfare’ terminology to current political and military discourse, on account of its relative lack of contemporary usage. The second engages with the political and ethical implications of treating ICT environments as a ‘domain’, with its ramifications for the pursuit of ‘dominion’, particularly through military action.

Bilgi Savaşı: Siperlerden Klavyelere Taşınan Bir Harekâtın Anatomisi

by Mustafa Sagsan

China: On the March to Virtual Conflict

by Dave Schroeder

How can China be expected to expand its cyber and information warfare efforts against the US? The purpose of this... more How can China be expected to expand its cyber and information warfare efforts against the US? The purpose of this paper is to perform a basic examination the scope and intent of Chinese cyber and Information Warfare (IW)/Information Operations (IO) efforts and capabilities. In US doctrine, these include all “actions undertaken to affect adversary information and information systems [...] in order to affect the information-based process, whether human or automated.”

When Collective Intelligence Agencies Collide: Public vs. Popular Intelligence and Networked Suspicions

by Jack Bratich

In Post-Global Network and Everyday Life
Editors: Marina Levina and Grant Kien,
(Peter Lang, 2010)

When John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt (2001), in their oft-cited passage, declared that it takes a network to fight a... more When John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt (2001), in their oft-cited passage, declared that it takes a network to fight a network, they made a link between decentralization (leaderless, antihierarchical tactics) and broad identities (in this
case, ideologies). They did so within the framework of warfare (netwar). I argue in this chapter that war is not a special case of networks but a context for understanding their existence.Networks have a lineage in warfare, specifically
within counterinsurgency studies and information warfare (Terranova 2004). What are new network enemies? How do they get detected? What war tactics are still in effect and which new ones get developed?
This chapter begins to examine the conditions under which networks can act (or be prevented from acting). It focuses on one element of networks, what has come to be called collective intelligence. Using the 9/11 Truth Movement (9/11 TM) as a case study, I examine how a particular networked collective
(organized around research and skepticism) is targeted by State and non-State actors. The 9/11 Truth Movement enables us to think about the ways in which networks are embedded in institutional histories. In addition, this case allows us to see one historical example of the politics of everyday life, namely the networking of suspicion. In times of terror/war, how are people mobilized to be suspicious subjects? How are peer-to-peer networks of suspicion clashing? I propose thinking of this case in terms of Public versus Popular Intelligence, in which traditional political categories (even if mutated) enable the task of distinguishing among networks.

Cyberwar: Concept, Status Quo, and Limitations

by Myriam Dunn Cavelty

CSS Analysis in Security Policy, No. 71 • April 2010

Political, economic, and military conflicts are increasingly also being carried out in cyberspace. However,... more Political, economic, and military conflicts are increasingly also being carried out in cyberspace. However, conceptually, the notion of “cyberwar” only includes a narrow sub-section of all conflicts in cyberspace. At the operative level, capabilities for cyberwarfare are becoming increasingly important. Nevertheless, the prospects for strategic IT wars that only take place in the virtual space remain extremely unlikely. For many states, there is a particular need for action in the area of cyberdefence.

Information Operations - Trends and Controversies

by Myriam Dunn Cavelty

CSS Analyses in Security Policy, Vol. 3 • No. 34 • May 2008

Information operations have gained importance in recent years. The capabilities to influence the enemy’s information... more Information operations have gained importance in recent years. The capabilities to influence the enemy’s information or the attitudes of the civilian population in theaters of conflict, and to secure one’s own information and information systems, have become important success factors in military operations. The concept has given rise to vehement controversies, however. Disagreement remains over the nature and scope of operations that can be carried out by the armed forces of democratic states under the rule of law. Clarification is also required as to the distribution of responsibility and tasks at the interface of civilian and military authority

Weaponisation of the Net

by Manoj Maharaj

Web 2.0 and its Implications for the Military

by Manoj Maharaj

Mobile security from an information warfare perspective

by Manoj Maharaj

Analyzing the Role of ICTs in the Tunisian and Egyptian Unrest from an Information Warfare Perspective

by Manoj Maharaj

Co-Authors: Kiru Pillay and Brett van Niekerk

In January 2011, the Tunisian government stepped down after weeks of protests; this was followed by unrest and... more In January 2011, the Tunisian government stepped down after weeks of protests; this was followed by unrest and protests in Egypt against the Egyptian government, leading also to the resignation of its president. Demonstrations in both countries were facilitated in some part by the online social media and related information and communications technologies that impacted the flow of information. The manner in which the information and communication technologies were employed suggests that the uprisings were a form of social information warfare. To provide an alternative understanding of the role of
technology and information in the events that led to the resignations of the Tunisian and Egyptian presidents, these uprisings are analyzed using the Information Warfare
Lifecycle Model.

USER-GENERATED DISCONTENT Convergence, polemology and dissent

by Jack Bratich

Cultural Studies, 25:4-5, 621-640
[special double issue on Rethinking Convergence/Culture, edited by James Hay and Nick Couldry]

Here's a 7 minute video of a version of this argument as applied to Egypt:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFmyF-qteqI

In a time when interactive technologies and participatory usage are equated with DIY citizenship, how do we account... more In a time when interactive technologies and participatory usage are equated with DIY citizenship, how do we account for the return of sovereign power in the form of police interventions into usage? How are decentralized social media deployed as instruments by traditional social actors and political institutions? This article addresses these questions by analyzing the structuring context that links convergence and warfare. It focuses on the Alliance of Youth Movements, the State Department co-sponsored group that produced a web-hub of materials that distributed technical knowledge and social media skills for youth protestors around the world. Its effects were felt in Egypt’s Arab Spring. At the same time, similar deployments of social media technologies by US domestic protestors have been considered a criminal use of a communication facility (e.g. Anonymous and the Tin Can Communications Collective’s use of Twitter during 2009 G20 protests). Convergence produces hybrids, some of which are encouraged, mobilized and ‘friended’ while others are pre-empted, dissuaded and targeted as unspecified enemies by sovereign/network powers. We are witnessing a convergence of sovereign and network powers, one that expresses new modes of control while setting the conditions for new forms of evaluation and antagonism.

The Heritage of Headhunting: History, Ideology, and Violence on Sumba, 1890-1990

by Janet Hoskins

‘The Impact of Cyberspace on Strategy’, High Frontier, Vol. 5, No. 3 (May 2009).

by David Lonsdale

‘Information Power: Strategy, Geopolitics, and the Fifth Dimension', Journal of Strategic Studies, 22, 2/3 (1999).

by David Lonsdale