Civilian Perspective on Cyber Warfare

Dartmouth College defines cyber warfare as nation-states participating in offensive and defensive operations, using computers to attack other computers or networks through electronic media.  The attackers do not need to be part of the military forces of these nation-states, rather they can be any person, sanctioned by these units.  The purveyors of cyber warfare are individuals who know how to exploit weaknesses in software and computers.  These nation-states, including the United States gather intelligence or spy to determine vulnerabilities in the digital infrastructure of known or potential enemies.  In doing so, they determine how to defeat the enemy while learning of their own weaknesses.  Perfect security is but a dream.  This is true for information security.  Since the beginning of time, someone has devised a means to defeat any security system – hackers are no different.  As soon as one security system is established, a hacker is disabling it.  The best we can to is minimize or mitigate the destructive nature of cyber warfare.