![]() ![]() This is called a cyber attack and the vandal is a cyber vandal. In cyberspace, a vandal can replace your website’s home page with a web defacement. In the physical space, a vandal can pick up a spray paint can and tag your car. Instead of “objects,” like a car or a sofa, you have email, websites, games, and databases.Īnd just like real life, most people you interact with are benign but some are malicious. Instead of physically “being” somewhere, you are using computing equipment to interact over a network and connect to other resources that give you information. At any point, someone in this environment can act against you or act against an object in the environment.Ĭyberspace is essentially the same: it is an environment in which you operate. You are an actor in this space and there are other actors around you most have good intentions, and some have bad intentions. You have objects around you that you interact with: a car, a sofa, a TV, a building. You are a person and you are somewhere perhaps an office, house, or at the car wash reading this on your iPhone. The Department of Defense defines cyberspace as: A domain characterized by the use of electronics and the electromagnetic spectrum to store, modify, and exchange data via networked systems and associated physical infrastructures.Ī good analogy to help people understand cyberspace is to draw a parallel to your physical space. The realm in which all of this takes place in cyberspace, and as previously stated, can be thought of as a theater of operation. Let’s examine two of the most common phrases used, “cyberspace” and “cyber attack” and get to the root of what they really mean. Cyber warfare, therefore, uses the same principles of goals, actors, and methods that one can examine against a cyber attack to ascertain the gravity of the situation. For example, traditional, kinetic warfare has a clear definition that is difficult to dispute: a conflict between two or more governments or militaries that includes death, property destruction, and collateral damage as an objective. The best way to forge an understanding of the differences in terms is to look at the conventional definitions of certain words and simply apply them to cyberspace. ![]() What separates these actors and accounts for the different definitions in the “cyber” terms are their ideologies, objectives, and methods. Each of these actors may have varying goals, but they are all interwoven, operating within the same medium. If one thinks of private-sector firms, government institutions, the military, criminals, terrorists, vandals, and spies as actors, cyberspace is their theater of operations. The state of the world always has been and always will be one of constant conflict, and technological progress has extended this contention from the physical realm into the network of interconnected telecommunications equipment known as cyberspace. ![]() The objective of this article is to find and provide a common language to help security managers wade through the politicking and marketing hype and get to what really matters. The issue is exacerbated by the fact that such terms are often used interchangeably and without much regard to their real-world equivalents. For example, on one hand, we have politicians and pundits declaring that the US is at cyber war with North Korea, and on the other hand President Obama declared the unprecedented Sony hack was vandalism. ![]() Because of this, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for those of us in the profession to cut through the noise and truly understand risk. The industry lacks a rubric of clear and standardized definitions of what constitutes cyber war, cyber terrorism, cyber espionage, and cyber vandalism. Stroll through the halls of a vendor expo at a security conference, and you will hear the same terms in the same tones, only here they are used to frighten you into believing your information is unsafe without the numerous products or services available for purchase. Tune in to just about any cable talk show or Sunday morning news program and you are likely to hear the terms “cyber war,” “cyber terrorism,” and “cyber espionage” bandied about in tones of grave solemnity, depicting some obscure but imminent danger that threatens our nation, our corporate enterprises, or even our own personal liberties. ![]()
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