Information Warfare
“We live in an age that is driven by information. Technological breakthroughs . . . are changing the face of war and how we prepare for war.
-William Perry, US Secretary of Defense 1994–1997”
As technology has taken great leaps forward, changing and digitalizing our world, also the way we are at war has changed. Traditionally, when we think of war, we think of merely attacking the opponent’s military forces and infrastructure. (Stupples, 2015) And that’s how it has been for centuries. In the agricultural society, people fought with swords and horses. In industrial society, different kinds of technological innovations appeared to warfare. However, the basic nature of war had stayed the same — attacking military forces and infrastructure. However, in the 21st century, we live the information age. (Huhtinen, 2019) Instead of only fighting at physical surroundings, different states are planning non-lethal attacks towards enemies’ information systems. The era of information warfare has begun. (Stupples, 2015)
Defining information warfare as a concept is rather difficult and not at all unambiguous. Kalilzad & White (1999) define information warfare as a process of protecting one’s own sources of battlefield information and at the same time trying to corrupt or destroy the enemy’s sources of battlefield information. A more modern definition of the concept by Dan Kuehl is “conflict or struggle between two or more groups in the information environment”. So, information warfare can consist of very different goals and activities happening in the information environment. In a way, information warfare could even be described as hacking. (Stupples, 2015) Aki-Mauri Huhtinen from Finnish Defence University defines information warfare as surveillance of one’s information systems, and through surveillance or influencing information systems to destroy a system, steal the information or compromise its integrity. (Huhtinen, 2019) In this text, we’ll handle information warfare in the context of these last two definitions.
Even though the military mostly still is structured the same way as it has been in the past centuries, all countries have been obliged to take some steps toward information warfare. In practice, this has meant the emergence of hybrid warfare. According to Huhtinen (2019), hybrid warfare means the combination of multiple conventional and unconventional tools of warfare. In the context of the Finnish army, for example, this stands for a combination of regular military forces, special forces, irregular forces, support of local unrest, economic warfare, cyber attacks, diplomacy, and information warfare propaganda. (Huhtinen, 2019)
The world we live in is dependant on its connectivity and free flow of information. With different methods of information warfare, it is possible to drive the system as far as into chaos. Stupples (2015) defines three main methods for causing such chaos: electronic warfare, cyber warfare, and psychological operations. (This grouping has some connections to the Huhtinen’s listing introduced earlier.) Electronic warfare tries to control or interfere with electromagnetic transmissions. In practice, this can mean taking control of GPS or satellites, or distracting military communications, for example. (Stupples, 2015) (Huhtinen, 2019) Cyber attacks, on the other hand, are attacks launched towards one or more computers or networks (Check Point, 2019). These attacks can make it impossible for businesses to operate or put significant societal infrastructures at risk. Finally, psychological operations (psy-ops) are attempts of spreading false information, fake news, rumors, and fear through social media and news outlets. They take advantage of the world’s connectedness and can cause panic and fear among a considerably wide audience. (Stupples, 2015) These false messages can affect, for example, people’s values, emotions or motives, and finally even their decision-making. Especially youngsters are especially open to influence, and very reachable thanks to their advanced use of technology and less advanced development of values and thinking. (Huhtinen, 2019)
For many countries, information warfare is already a reality. For example, Russia has been proven to conduct many attacks to its neighboring countries, and it most definitely isn’t the only one. The biggest countries have systematic plans for preparing for protecting themselves from these information attacks. However, even though there are protection strategies and a pretty good awareness of the threat of information warfare, the western countries haven’t yet fully managed to grasp the threat an attacker could cause to the modern infrastructure. Therefore, a greater understanding and continuous studies of the possibilities of information warfare will truly be needed to be able to protect the state and citizens from the rising threats. (Stupples, 2015)
Sources
Check Point Software Technologies Ltd, What is a Cyber Attack?, viewed 27.11.2019, <https://www.checkpoint.com/definitions/what-is-cyber-attack/>
Huhtinen, A., 2019, INFORMATION WARFARE, A Digital Coercion, lecture notes, Aalto University, Social Media, delivered 25.11.2019
Khalilzad Z. M. & White J. P., 1999, Strategic appraisal: The changing role of Information in Warfare, RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, available at: <https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1016/MR1016.chap7.pdf>
Stupples, D., 2015, What is Information Warfare, World Economic Forum, viewed 27.11.2019. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/12/what-is-information-warfare/
