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Cyberspace: A New Battleground in National Security

NCJ Number
226583
Journal
Homeland Defense Journal Volume: 6 Issue: 7 Dated: December 2008 Pages: 6,8,10,11
Author(s)
Shaun Waterman
Date Published
December 2008
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This briefly examines the potential threat level of cybercrime and cyber-warfare due to it attractiveness as an asymmetric strategy.
Abstract
Cyberspace has been defined as a domain that allows someone to deliver effects disproportionate to the level of investment. It is the disproportionate character of the threat that has led many to see cyberspace as natural territory for terrorists and other non-state actors. Within the spectrum of the cyber-domain a very minimal investment allows an individual(s) to inflict damage totally disproportionate to an individual(s) level of investment. In addition, the difficulty in identifying the attackers is a common characteristic of cyber-attacks; and deniability, being able to act without showing one’s hand, is one of the things that makes cyber-warfare so attractive as an asymmetric strategy. National reports show the Nation’s networks are vulnerable to attackers because of its expansive accessibility, an accessibility that is built into the very architecture of the Internet; the result is cyber-war.

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