Objectives of Information Warfare

Introduction

Topicality of the diploma work. The end of the XX century was marked by the advent of new weapons. This is the so-called informational weapon. Information warfare, of course, took place long before the twentieth century. However, in the distant past, people were able to influence each other only in the process of direct communication, influencing his interlocutors by means of words, intonation, gestures, facial expressions. Today, methods of influence on human consciousness has become much more diverse, efficient and sophisticated, based on accumulated over thousands of years of practical experience, as well as through the creation of special technologies of communication, collaboration and people management. Therefore, the information war - it is nothing as overt and covert targeted impact of information systems on each other in order to obtain a certain gain in the material sphere. Based on this definition of Information Warfare, the use of Information Warfare means, above all, work with public opinion, with the ideology of the enemy. Going this route, you can always increase or generate for the subsequent activation of algorithms for self-destruction.

Need to understand the nature of information technology and power over people, lack of which can lead not only to the mass extermination of certain peoples, but also to the death of modern civilization in general. But to repulse the aggression of information is necessary, first of all, understanding of current events. At the present time there are a global information culture and information and ideological expansion of the West, carried out by global telecommunication networks (e.g, Internet) and through the media. Many countries have to take special measures to protect its citizens, their culture, traditions and spiritual values from the influence of the information of other states. There is a need to protect the national information resources and preserve the confidentiality of information exchange on global open networks, since on this basis there may be political and economic confrontation between states, new crises in international relations. Therefore, information security, Information Warfare and information weapons are now at the center of attention.

Increasingly, the public pays attention to the issue of Information Warfare, because it is the object of people's consciousness, its purpose - to control and to manipulate of public consciousness. Moreover, information and psychological impact often occurs unconsciously for those who are exposed to it. Information weapons are a source of immediate danger to mankind, because it can change people’s minds, makes them inadequate to perceive reality and make the disastrous actions for themselves.

Speak in detail about the methods and techniques of Information Warfare today is necessary because, firstly, the interpretation of a reception of Information Warfare can translate it from the category of hidden threats in the clear, which is already possible to fight, and, secondly, the fact of the theory of Information Warfare, presented in this diploma work, to warn the potential victim of an idealistic naive perception of both the outer and inner world of its own.

The aim of the diploma work is to study the nature of information technology and information power over people in political sphere, lack of which can not only lead to massive destruction of individual nations, but also to the death of modern civilization in general.

To achieve our goal seems appropriate to achieve the following objectives: - Explore the literature on general theoretical issues of Information Warfare and on the basis of the theory to clarify the concept of "Information Warfare", "psychological warfare", "propaganda confrontation";

- To consider the phenomenon of Information Warfare as the media's political influence (conflict with Georgia, the events in Iraq);

- Analyze media materials on the war in Tskhinvali and in Iraq.

The object of the diploma work is the essence of Information Warfare, which affects the international relationships.

The subject of study is how information distributes and the formation of the features of their impact on the consciousness of the masses.

Survey of researches It should be noted that today's domestic and foreign scientific literature described a significant number of ideas and sound proposals of theoretical and practical problems relating to issues of purposeful use of information, information resources and technologies in the pursuit of political, economic, social, military and other purposes. Especially important to me was the book by I. Panarin «Информационная война и геополитика» (Information warfare and geopolitics) in which the author argues that "now is the fifth World War - Information and intellectual." Third, he called the "cold war" with the West that Russia has lost, and the fourth - the war on terrorism, which won by the civilized world. And another works: - Works of G. Smolyan, V. Cygichko and D. Chereshkin, in particular their performance in the press «Оружие, которое может быть опаснее ядерного» (Weapon which might be more dangerous than Nuclear), Rastorguev S.P. «Информационная война» (Information Warfare), Krysko V.G. «Секреты психологической войны» (Secrets of psychological war), Pocheptsova G.G. «Информационная война» (Information Warfare) and E. Toffler «Third Wave» and the work of Czerwinski T. J. «The Third Wave: what the Toffler never told you». To study the origin and nature of information as the basis of the conflict were also put the work of domestic and foreign authors in the field of history and sociology of the media in the twentieth century (Y. Zasurskiy, S. Beglov, E. Prohorov, E.Kornilov).

The methodological basis included comparative analysis, and analytical work.

The hypothesis of the study is the assumption that the methods and techniques of information and political warfare in international affairs which have detrimental effect on society, creating hatred between peoples. Methods of psychological pressure are different, but their political significance is a common denominator: the retention of power at any cost.

The structure meets the stated objectives of work and consists of an introduction, three main chapters, conclusion and bibliography. In the introduction it is substantiated the topicality of the study, defined goals and objectives, method of study of information conflicts. Most of the permits tasks based on analysis of media material. The results of the study are presented.

Theoretical Basis of Information Warfare

1.1 History of the Concept of "Information Warfare"

Today are a lot of talks about the "Information War", its relation to the psychological pressure on civil society. However, hardly anyone will be able to accurately answer what it is. Moreover, even the experts can’t answer the question about when was born the phrase "information war", when was first raised the question of how to treat information as a weapon? It is known, about the confrontation of ideologies and psychological conflicts have always written since antiquity. The war of ideas is always accompanied by armed conflicts, and they had a lot of stories. Under the information war theorist S. Padover understands a slightly different type of impact than the one that for decades was known as psychological warfare, defined as "the use of all possible kinds of communication with the aim to destroy an enemy’s desire to fight. We are talking about the role of the media, and today in the first place - television and the Internet.” [1 p. 238].

Initially, T. Ron used the term "information war" in a report prepared by him in 1976 for the company Boeing, and entitled "Systems of Weapons and Information Warfare." T. Ron pointed out that the information infrastructure is a key component of the U.S. economy. At the same time, it also becomes vulnerable to both in wartime and in peacetime. This report can be considered as the first mention of the term "information war". Publication of the report of T. Ron was the beginning of an active campaign in the media. The formulation of the problem interested the American military office, which tends to engage in "X-Files." The Air Force United States has been actively discussing this subject since 1980. By that time there was a common understanding that information can be objective, and weapons.[14 p. 25].

The emergence of new problems after the "cold war", the term "Information Warfare" was introduced in the U.S. Department of Defense documents. It was actively mentioned in the press after the operation "Desert Storm" in 1991, where new information technologies were first used as a means of warfare. Officially, the term was first introduced to the U.S. Secretary of Defense Directive on December 21, 1992.

A few years later, in February 1996, U.S. Department of Defense has enacted "The Doctrine of Combat Systems and Control." This publication sets forth the principles to combat control and management systems as the application of Information Warfare in military operations. The publication defines the struggle with control and management systems as a "joint use of the techniques and methods of security, military deception, psychological operations, electronic warfare and physical destruction of facilities management systems, supported by intelligence department, to prevent the collection of information, to influence or destroy the enemy's ability to control and control over the battlefield, while protecting their own forces and allies, as well as preventing the opponent from doing the same. " [15 p.70].

The above document identified the following points:

- Organizational structure,

- The procedure of planning,

- Training and management of course information operations.

The most important thing is that this publication has defined the concept and doctrine of war with the control and management systems. This was the first time the U.S. Defense Department has identified the opportunities and Information Warfare doctrine.

At the end of 1996, Robert Bunker - Pentagon expert, on one of the symposiums presented a report on a new military doctrine of the U.S. Armed Forces of the XXI century (the concept of «Force XXI»). At its foundation was laid the separation of the theater of operations into two components:

- The traditional space;

- Cyberspace.

And cyberspace is even more important. Robert Bunker suggested the doctrine of "cyber maneuver", which should be a natural complement to traditional military concepts that aim neutralize or suppress enemy forces. [16 p. 54].

Thus, the number of spheres of warfare, in addition to land, sea, air and space, and now included information sphere. The main objects of the defeat in the new wars will be the information infrastructure and the psychology of the enemy (there was even a term «human network»). [2].

The technological revolution has led to the appearance of such terms as "information age". This was due to the fact that information systems have become part of our life and changed it radically.

Information age has also changed the method of conducting combat operations, providing commanders an unprecedented quantity and quality of information. Now, the commander can observe the conduct of hostilities, to analyze events and communicate information. It is necessary to distinguish between a war of the information age and the information war. War of the information age is information technology as a tool for the success of military operations. In contrast, Information Warfare regards the information as a separate subject or as a potential weapon, and lucrative target. Information age technologies have made it possible a theoretical possibility - direct manipulation of the information of the enemy. A special role is played by television and internet.

Television and the Internet - phenomenon of high technology. They evolved from the very beginning it as a technological means of mass communication, and technology development has had an important influence on the process of growing into TV and the Internet in the field of communications, and then turning them into the dominant mechanism in this sphere. Therefore, consideration of Western television will start with technology as a cultural phenomenon.

Information warfare consists of actions taken to achieve information superiority in national military strategy by acting on the information and information systems of the enemy while strengthening and protecting their own information and information systems and infrastructure.

The system of reasoning of the enemy, building on the new elements should lead to new solutions. Any resistance to the partner says that received information was not effective enough. Then, to continue the fight you must again give out information - more significant than previously issued, to obtain in exchange for information that reached the target issued. This is reflected in the reduction of new, more compelling argument. Attacker issues all new and updated information. In reality, this model is developed for any information campaign. It is interesting that the basic facts does not change, new information is increasing at the periphery of the main charges, including additional new evidence, while maintaining the old line.

Differences of Information Warfare from the ordinary:

1. Ordinary war is predictable and allows the use of defensive measures. In the case of Information Warfare is possible to protect certain operations, "vaccination" of thought to the introduction of an alternative point of view. Having received and discussed it in advance, a person behaves differently in the case of obtaining real counter argumentation. However, in most cases it is possible to predict the direction and tools for a possible attack which in the information war is absent. [17 p. 22].

2. Usually during the war the territory is fully captured, during the information war incremental capture of territory is possible, when the audience is won parts. Probabilities of individual work with opinion leaders, youth, etc. in contrast to the bomb, which destroys all, Information Warfare acts selectively, covering a variety of different segments of the population. Conventional weapons act on any part of the population equally.

3. In the information war exists the possibility of multiple capture the same people, resulting in the capture of the different thematic areas of consciousness.

4. Man is not able to respond to an invisible force, like that of radiation. Moreover, this effect, in fact, may be framed in friendly form, to which man can’t respond aggressively. The main danger of the information war - invisible damage typical for conventional wars. The population does not even feel that it is exposed. As a result, society does not switch on its available defenses. Information warfare is a "peaceful", as it can go against the backdrop of universal peace and prosperity.

5. Unlike past wars, space or distance does not play in the new wars the main role.

6. In the information war changed the role of impact, from a purely physical - the destruction of the object, to a communication - that preserves the object. The task now becomes the object of changing communicative environment. War directed to the conquest of space gave way to a knowledge war. "Information technology can provide a resolution of geopolitical crises without making a single shot." [18 p. 40].

Definition of Information Warfare

One of the problems with Information Warfare was that for a long time no official definition existed. The main reason for this is that this kind of warfare is relatively new and that the term Information Warfare has many different meanings. On one hand, there is the military aspect of it but on the other hand, Information Warfare is also used to describe the “war” on the Internet.

While the Department of Defense of USA was defining Information Warfare for a certain time exclusively for the military field with referral to the support of national military strategy, there exists now a wider approach as a definition for Information Warfare. This definition can be used for the military as well for the civilian side of Information Warfare.

Information Warfare - Actions taken to achieve information superiority by affecting adversary information, information-based processes, information systems, and computer-based networks while defending one's own information, information based processes, information systems, and computer-based networks. [20 p. 41].

Information Systems - The entire infrastructure, organization, personnel, and components that collect, process, store, transmit, display, disseminate, and act on information.

Information operations - actions taken to hinder the collection, processing, transmission and storage of information systems of the enemy while protecting their own information and information systems. [21 p. 150].

Information warfare the combined effect (a set of information operations) to a system of state and military control of the opposing party, on its military and political leadership, which in peacetime would lead to a decision favorable to the party initiating the impact of information solutions, and in the course of the conflict is completely paralyzed operation of infrastructure to control the opponent. [3 p.39].

Types of Information Warfare

In his book “Information Warfare”, Winn Schwartau describes a different way to define Information Warfare. He does not try to define all levels of Information Warfare in one and the same description, but he split the definition into the following three classes:

Class1: Personal Information Warfare

The first class describes attacks against an individual’s electronic privacy. This includes the disclosure of digital records and database entries wherever information is stored. The average person today has little control over the information stored. We cannot control the amount of information concerning us even if it is correct or not. According to a USA Today poll, 78% of Americans are concerned about the loss of privacy. [4 p.24].

In the past, a spy had to tap phone lines and had to use miniature cameras and microphones to get desired information about a person. Today, he still has the capability to use these utilities (which are more miniaturized and easier to use than ever) but most of the information about a person will be available in existing databases. To blackmail someone, it is no longer necessary to survey him/her for months; today’s Information Warrior gets the desired information with the help of a computer over the telephone line.

Do we have to be concerned about information that get public? To be honest, most of us do not want that the credit card bills, bank account numbers, financial transactions such as loans, video rentals, medical history, emergency room services, prescriptions, criminal offenses, arrests, court records and other information printed in the newspapers, spread to our friends or distributed over the world on the Internet. Worse, if someone provides private information, who says that this information has to be true? You can spend a lifetime denying published information where no one takes the responsibility for the integrity of the data.

Put together, we can say:

Thousands of databases hold together the digital images of our lives.

Computers constantly exchange information about each of us.

Available information does not have to be correct

Getting erroneous information corrected is almost impossible

Class 1 Information Warfare does not seem to be a potential threat but can easily destroy someone's identity or even link to class 2 or even class 3 Information Warfare.

Class2: Corporate Information Warfare

This class describes competition, or better said today's war between corporations around the world. It is easy to imagine that a company could invest $1M in a system that allows them to break into a competitor’s database and copy research results worth over $15M. To make sure that the competitor will not be the first on the market with the new product, they could also destroy the original database on the fly and make it look like a possible accident with a virus on the mainframe.

This description of corporate Information Warfare is not new. This kind of "espionage" is well known from the cold war where Russian and American spies tried to gather information about each other’s nation.

Today, corporate Information Warfare has a new dimension. Not only can one corporation try to get the research results of a competitor, states became involved in this "game". It is possible that a state encourages students to study abroad (e.g. in the United States) and asks them to keep an eye open, not only to the lectures at the University but also to work as interns in US corporations and give the information back to their government.

Class 2 Information Warfare is not only about the acquisition of information, it is also possible to spread information, real or fictions. The possibility that a drug competitor corporation (or a foreign government with its own chemical production in their country) spreads the information that the widely used ABC drug against asthma by the US Corporation X causes significant lung cancer, the doctors will probably stop with the prescription of ABC until a study will be published.

This study could be fake and part of a whole campaign of well-designed disinformation. The damage is made and millions of dollars for the X Corporation is lost until they can prove (if they can) that their product is OK.

This previous example uses a drug manufacturer. In today's world, many processes are controlled by computer chips. It would be even easier for an IC manufacturer to claim that the widely used chip by their competitors does not work as it should. Would you buy a car with an airbag where it was written in the newspapers that the chip that controls the airbag does not work properly in 40% of all cases? How will the company prove contrary? You cannot test the system easily by yourself if it functions; you have to trust the manufacturer. If a corporation looses the trust of their customer, they also lose millions of dollars.

Also class 2 warfare can cause global changes. What if, for example, Jennifer Flowers announced her complaint against Bill Clinton not months before his election but only a few days before the Democratic National Convention? US history and it's influence on world's history could have changed.

Class 3: Global Information Warfare

This type of Warfare works against industries, global economical forces or against entire countries or states. It is not any more sneaking in Research data of a competitor but about the theft of secrets and then turning this information against its owners.

In this class, you can multiply the power of class 1 and class 2 warfare by a large factor and still not be able to imagine all the damage that can be done within global Information Warfare. Here, money and personal are not the critical factor. Second and third world countries are spending billions of dollars every year in airplanes, bombs and bullets. As an example, a dictator in the South East could about 200 million dollars a year in information weapons and be able within about three years to damage the US industry and government in an unimaginable way. In relation to traditional weapons, Information Warfare opens new horizons of cost effectiveness for terrorists or enemy governments. Class 3 warfare enables attacks over ten thousands of miles with dramatic effects. With the weapons described in one of the following sections of this paper, the described dictator would be able to crash Wall Street, shut down the banking system of the US; then the last Wall Street crash will look harmless in comparison to the effects that would follow.

Examples of possible Information Warfare weapons

In technical sphere:

Computer Viruses

"A virus is a code fragment that copies itself into a larger program, modifying that program. A virus executes only when its host program begins to run. The virus then replicates itself, infecting other programs as it reproduces." Viruses are well known in every computer based environment, so that it is not astonishing that this type of rough program is used in the Information Warfare. We could imagine that the CIA (or Army, Air Force....) inserts computer viruses into the switching networks of the enemy's phone system. As today's telephone systems are switched by computers, you can shut them down, or at least causing massive failure, with a virus as easy that you can shut down a "normal" computer. An example what the damage a virus could cause exists. We can compare it with the system crash of AT&T long distance switching system on January 15, 1990. [5 p.10].

Worms

"A worm is an independent program. It reproduces by copying itself in full-blown fashion from one computer to another, usually over a network. Unlike a virus, it usually doesn't modify other programs."

Also if worms don't destroy data, they can cause the loss of communication with only eating up resources and spreading through the networks. A worm can also easily be modified so that data deletion or worse occurs. With a "wildlife" like this, We could imagine breaking down a networked environment like a ATM and banking network.[5 p.11].

Trojan horses

"A Trojan horse is a code fragment that hides inside a program and performs a disguised function. It's a popular mechanism for disguising a virus or a worm"

A Trojan horse could be camouflaged as a security related tool for example like SATAN (Security Administrating Tool for Analyzing Networks). SATAN checks UNIX system for security holes and is freely available on the Internet. If someone edits this program so that it sends discovered security holes in an e-mail message back to him (lets also include the password file? No problem), the Cracker learns much information about vulnerable hosts and servers. A clever written Trojan horse does not leave traces of its presence and because it does not cause detectable damage, it is hard to detect. [5 p.11].

Logic bombs

"A bomb is a type of Trojan horse, used to release a virus, a worm or some other system attack. It's either an independent program or a piece of code that's been planted by a system developer or programmer." With the overwhelming existence of US based software (e.g. MS Windows or UNIX systems), the US Government, or whomever you would like to imagine, could decide that no software would be allowed to be exported from that country without a Trojan horse. This hidden function could become active when a document with "war against the USA" exists on the computer. Its activation could also be triggered from the outside. An effect could be to format the computer’s hard disks or to mail the document to the CIA.[5 p.11].

Trap doors

"A trap door, or a back door, is a mechanism that's built into a system by its designer. The function of a trap door is to give the designer a way to sneak back into the system, circumventing normal system protection." As we mentioned in the last section, all US software could be equipped with a trap door that would allow Information Warfare agencies to explore systems and the stored data on foreign countries. This could be most useful in cases of military strategic simulations and plans and would provide the Department of Defense intelligence with vital information.[5 p.12].

Chipping

Just as software can contain unexpected functions, it is also possible to implement similar functions in hardware. Today's chips contain millions of integrated circuits that can easily be configured by the manufacturer so that they also contain some unexpected functions. They could be built so that they fail after a certain time, blow up after they receive a signal on a specific frequency, or send radio signals that allow identification of their exact location - the number of possible scenarios exceeds, by far, the scope of this paper. The main problem with chipping is that the specific (adapted) chip be installed in the place that is useful for the Information Warrior. The easiest solution is to built the additional features into all the chips manufactured in the country that is interested in this type of Information Warfare.[5 p.12].

Nano machines and Microbes

Nano machines and Microbes provide the possibility to cause serious harm to a system. Unlike viruses, we can use these to attack not the software but the hardware of a computer system. Nano machines are tiny robots (smaller than ants) that could be spread at an information center of the enemy. They crawl through the halls and offices until they find a computer. They are so small that they enter the computer through slots and shut down electronic circuits.

Another way to damage the hardware is a special breed of microbes. We know that they can eat oil, what about if they were bred for eating silizium? They would destroy all integrated circuits in a computer lab, a site, a building, a town.[5 p.13].

Electronic jamming

In the old days (and even today) electronic jamming was used to block communications channel at the enemy's equipment so that they can't receive any information. The next step is not to block their traffic, but instead overwhelm them with incorrect information. This type of disinformation can also be combined with the possibilities described in the section "soft war" [5 p.13].

In sphere of Mass Media:

Propaganda

Is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. Propaganda is usually repeated and dispersed over a wide variety of media in order to create the desired result in audience attitudes.

Disinformation

Is intentionally false or inaccurate information that is spread deliberately. For this reason, it is synonymous with and sometimes called black propaganda. It is an act of deception and false statements to convince someone of untruth. Disinformation should not be confused with misinformation, information that is unintentionally false.

Objectives of Information Warfare

Who uses (or could use) Information Warfare

Who uses Information Warfare against who today and the military use of Information Warfare is not officially known, at least only from public sources. There has been a wide discussion on whether Information Warfare tools were used in the Persian Gulf War and whether the CIA had overtaken a wireless network of the Iraqi Army, but these messages were fake or could not be proven. Desert Storm was mostly a war where "smart" weapons were used to destroy the enemy's headquarters. Information Warfare was widely used to demoralize the enemy troops in Desert Storm. Ten of thousands of pamphlets were dropped over enemy forces, part of them in thousands of plastic cans to draw the attention of the Iraqis toward the sea.

Information Warfare, in its wider sense, is daily used between individuals and corporations. Computer system penetrations are reported daily to emergency report teams that are in charge to take countermeasures. Often, the attackers (crackers) are arguing that they do not commit a crime but improving the security of the system by pointing to its weaknesses. However, data disclosure and denial of service are a serious problem. [22 p. 107].

Who is vulnerable?

The contradiction about Information Warfare is, that it is forced by nations that are highly technologized. Information War on the battlefield will therefore be used mostly by them.

Unfortunately, today, most potential enemies do not have the technological capability. Information Warfare can successfully be used against them. The enemy has to have high tech weapons and communication to use Information Warfare in a practical manner. Therefore, countries which develop these new kinds of weapons

And tactics are also the most vulnerable. Information weapons cannot be used against nations without technical development. And they only have a partial effect against developing countries.

Information Warfare can also be used in a "non military" way against individuals and whole societies. This new style of warfare gives potential enemies the power to disrupt the communication capabilities of a country and thereby break down its business.

The Information Warfare weapons could more likely be used in the near future as terrorist weapons rather than on the battlefield by the regular armies. Today's communication society is extremely vulnerable to disruptions. Instead of planting a bomb in a airplane with all the dangers for the terrorists, they could shut down all the communication capabilities from the tower of a airport to the hundreds of airplanes that the control center guides. A accident following this disruption would be most likely. [23 p. 27].

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