Is Cyberwarfare Fiction?

An anonymous reader writes "In response to calls by Russia and the UN for a 'cyberwarfare arms limitation treaty,' this article explains that 'cyberwar' and 'cyberweapons' are fiction. The conflicts between nation states in cyberspace are nothing like warfare, and the tools hackers use are nothing like weapons. Putting 'cyber' in front of something is just a way for people to grasp technical concepts. The analogies quickly break down, and are useless when taken too far (such as a 'cyber disarmament treaty').'"

Comments

Re:Warning, noobish question ahead.

[Monkeedude1212]

So that someone somewhere (probably higher up) can work from home.

Probably, anyways. You know how it is.

There is a difference between "war" and "terror"

[rtfa-troll]

As ever, this post has so many things wrong with it that it's stupid.

a) I've had my finger on the "off" switch for an entire country's power grid from a mobile phone

No you haven't; at least not in the sense that matters. Even if there is a country stupid enough to connect it's "off switch" to the internet, all they have to do is pull the ethernet cable and switch it on again. Even if you can break a small proportion of power stations, the rest will come on again. You are a "cybervandal" not a "cyberwarrior".

The real serious cyberwarfare people would do both. A disable the off switch (force it on) and b) drop a graphite bomb at a key place to do weeks worth of damage. That's proper "cyber" warfare.

Cyber"warriors" know the exploit for the radar station and disable the air defences as they fly in with real bombs.

Cyber"guerilla"s mess with account numbers in the fund transfer excels of most of the big companies in the place they target.

There's a whole load of resources which are needed for this stuff. Real test suites where you actually have the control systems of your enemies nuclear power plants; actual buildings where you can try messing up the air conditioning system, people who can actually write serious, fully EAL7 compliant defence systems. People who can write EAL7 compliant versions of exploits (have you seen the state of security software????). etc. etc. etc.

If you think your country's military doesn't have a valid role to play in a "cyberwar" then you haven't understood the difference between a "cyberterrorist" putting an "easter egg" into a flight control system and a "cyberwarrior" diverting all your civilians into the area where his nukes can strike them most effectively.