This Is An Essential Text On Cyber Warfare

With the Internet now a battleground between nation states, a growing library of academic research is helping us understand the mayhem.

Thanks to the open access European Journal of Law and Technology (EJLT) Cyber Warfare: A Review of Theories, Law, Policies, Actual Incidents – and the Dilemma of Anonymity is now available in its entirety to the public. The paper authored by Professor Pauline C. Reich, Stuart Weinstein, Charles Wild, and Allan S. Cabanlong was originally published in 2010 and can be downloaded for free.

Cyber Warfare: A Review of Theories… is a straightforward report unencumbered by numbing academic parlance. It comes highly recommended as one of the more exhaustive briefs on cyber warfare in the early 21st century. In it, Prof. Reich and her co-authors create working definitions and examine the public record so far on incidents of cyber war.

Cyber Warfare: A Review of Theories… is just as rewarding as a “first draft” of history. It chronicles specific crises and discusses them in-depth, beginning with Estonia in 2007, then Georgia in 2008, and South Korea and Japan in 2009 and 2010, respectively.

In the case of Estonia and Georgia it’s worth noting that Russia is the easily identifiable aggressor, a role that was more apparent during its short war with the latter country in 2008. In the ensuing years Israel and the US would launch their own cyber attacks, but it remains difficult to ascertain which country really began to weaponize the Internet.

To organize its complex subject matter, the authors of Cyber Warfare: A Review of Theories… provide a table for categorizing cyber threats along with common targets for each type and their strategies. The last section of Cyber Warfare: A Review of Theories… lists proposals for mitigating the worst effects of cyber war between countries.

A real treat is found in the end, where the authors specifically mention China, the US, Russia, Israel and France as the countries most capable of launching major cyber attacks.

Cyber Warfare: A Review of Theories… draws a powerful conclusion that portends the dark future unrestricted cyber attacks will usher.

…countries reliant on Internet use for e-commerce, e-government, etc. must be prepared for the dangers of long and protracted cyber conflict/attack/war struggles, security and efforts for continuing its unrestricted use can be so costly as to undermine the very benefits.