Cyber Security
Civic cyber warfare – The fog
T By Pip van Wanrooij
here is a fog settling across the general populace, the civic space, due to lack of situational understanding and the broader characteristics of cyberspace. These characteristics include hyper and inter-connectivity, virtuality, expansion and ambiguity. The current threat landscape consists of all types of actors, from script kiddies, malicious employees, to state-sponsored proxies and nation states, all with various levels of expertise and motivations. Cyber warfare or conflict is associated with attacks and exploitation of computer networks. The term ‘fog of war’ was first associated with a wellknown war strategist, Carl von Clausewitz and it applies to confusion, uncertainty and lack of perspective in battle. Today, the fog of civic cyber warfare produces doubts about the level of trust of information provided from cyberspace. In the current climate almost anything cyber, digital or connected is now considered trustless. An end-user cannot trust anything on a cell phone, or laptop, storage device, cloud applications or hardware. So, what can be done to restore our trust? In the military context, the ‘fog of war’ has been decreasing as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities continue to improve. However, the cyber battlespace has shifted and now includes the civilian populace. In the civilian environment, uncertainty, confusion, lack of clear information, poor cyber literacy and technological competency provides a platform for digital and physical exploitation or indeed a form of ‘civic cyber
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warfare’. Territorial conflicts, and battles for resources and ideologies are primary drivers for conflict. The tenets for every nation state is to look after its own interests economically, maintain sovereignty and the security and safety of its citizens. Essentially, the power of a nation rests in its ability and ambition to control both territory and resources. In a technology driven and digitally reliant society, the cyber vector has provided a platform of power, information, and deception. For many the cyberspace realm is difficult to conceptualise and manage. Even when data is ‘in the cloud’ it actually relies heavily upon physical infrastructure to function. It connects to computer networks, energy grids, the Internet, servers, and IoT enabled devices. In the mix, it is the human element that creates, runs and manages this complex architecture.
The new gold The digital age, or “the cyber century”, has enabled economic progress, social benefits and democratisation of information. Data has become the new gold, leveraging power both for good and for destruction of economies, cultures and ideologies. Data is mined, profited from without a consideration for the individual data owner. Data custodians including schools, health organisations and government agencies struggle to protect valuable